Paul Schumaker

Born and raised in Joe McCarthy's hometown, Paul Schumaker escaped the stifling homogeneity of Appleton, Wisconsin, to learn about social and moral diversity, justice, and democracy. He earned a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and became a professor at the University of Kansas for 45 years. His books include empirical studies of democratic performance in cities (e.g., Critical Pluralism), comparative descriptions and evaluations of competing ideologies (e.g., Great Ideas/Grand Schemes), and theories about America's underlying political consensus that remains hidden by our increasing partisanship (e.g., From Ideologies to Public Philosophies). Studying and assessing how Americans choose presidents became a hobby after the Bush-Gore election. While retired he wrote The Twenty-Eighth Amendment, in which he advocates an alternative to both the existing Electoral College system and the popular-plurality alternative advocated by most reformers. He also urges that Americans to rethink what we are looking for in our president. He enjoys visiting his sons and their families in California, playing Scrabble with his college sweetheart and wife, playing tennis with a gaggle of other old geezers at the Jayhawk Tennis Center, and riding his bike with some of his high school buddies in the northwoods of Wisconsin.