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Bayard's responses to Shenkman's arguments skirt the issues at hand rather than confronting them. For example, his flip comment about the Simpsons completely ignores the point, which is that ignorance about the constitution is a problem, not that it's bad to know the names of cartoon characters. He's right that the lists are not comparable, but the point is that most Americans don't know their rights (or the rights of others) as enumerated in the constitution. That's a big big problem, especially since judicial interpretation of those rights depends in part on public perception of them.
Likewise the comments about not knowing a party's platform to the word are accurate, but irrelevant. Few would argue that one needs to know every detail of a candidate's positions to vote for them. The points are that people A) don't know the BASICS of many party platforms, and B) Don't understand what they do know. Picking policy based on how it makes you feel is foolish, since all policies are aimed at making people feel good. Corporate welfare is pitched as job retention. Draconian drug laws are pitched as fighting crime in general, and reducing the scourge of addiction, even if study after study proves that they do neither. People accept extremely simplistic claims about how policies will affect their lives and do little analysis or digging about what the actual likely outcome is. The fact that judging a candidate's trustworthiness (often an emotional process) may also be a valid element of voting doesn't change the need for more intellectual rigor in the booth.
As for Bayard's claims that we can't reverse democracy's advance, and that the good old days were seriously flawed, he's exactly right. White men aren't more intelligent or rational than black women. Legislators and electors can be just as ignorant and short sighted as general voters (Ted Stevens LEAPS to mind) But we can push for better education and a culture that doesn't look down on intellectualism. We can demand better from our media than Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher. There's where the fight is.
