American (The Book)

Stewart, Jon, Ben Karlin, and David Javerbaum. American (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. New York City: Warner Books, 2004.

Jon Stewart and the rest of The Daily Show writers have always been quick to point out the absurdities of American government on their late night show. Often the show seen as liberal, due to their ruthless attacks on the Republican party, but they do occasionally take a swipe at Democrats, or semi-Democrats (Joe Lieberman). This book is written as a mock text book, complete with end of chapeter activities and everything. The book is a satirical look at the inner workings of government, and the authors adopt an authorative voice while writing. Chapter 3 is devoted to the office of the Presidency, and makes fun of the anything from the duties of the President, which apparently includes "Feigning enthusiam for the visiting NCAA Women's Basketball champions", to the lack of diversity of the people elected to the office (this was written in 2004, before Barack Obama was elected). The textbook's authorative voice is supported by massive amounts of research, albeit some is quite comically fake. Through this viewpoint, they highlight everything that doesn't make sense in our government. For example, it points out how every incoming President blames his predecessor, only to later take credit for the delayed effects of his policy. The purpose of this examination of American government is to change the American voters point of view of things, hopefully shifting away from trusting the government is working for the people and starting to be more skeptical of the real motivations behind government actions. The audience, who consists of liberal readers, are the people who are already skeptical of government, but this book will reinforce their notion that government is as an institution needs to be closely watched.