The right wingnut tea bagging, birther thugs sponsored and directed by corporate funded astroturf organizations continue their violent, anti-democratic disruption of health care reform town hall meetings of Democratic members of Congress,

From dday at Hullabaloo: "During the town hall, one conservative activist turns to his fellow attendees and asks them to raise their hands if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Almost all the hands shot up. Rep Green quickly turned the question on the audience and asked, “How many of you have Medicare?” Nearly half the attendees raised their hands, failing to note the irony.

"Decades of conservative message dominance has convinced a healthy portion of the public that a government-run program isn't run by the government. Failure to counteract that message 30 years ago is deeply affecting this debate today. Paul Waldman writes:

" 'After decades of being told that the federal government is a sinister, rapacious beast with nothing but evil intents, the idea that a complex bill might contain a Soylent Green provision isn't too far a stretch. Nonetheless, it remains entirely possible that before long, health reform will no longer be a debate but will become an actual policy, one that will succeed or fail on its own merits. As both sides have understood (the Republicans more so than the Democrats, however), this battle is so critical because the stakes go to the heart of each party's approach to the role of government.

'Both parties hope that the successful implementation of their favored policies will lead to a broader acceptance of their ideology. Republicans want to privatize government services not only as an end in itself but to show people that the private sector works better than government. In the same way, Democrats advocate for effective government services not only to solve an immediate problem but to demonstrate that government can in fact do some things very well.

'Unfortunately, the successful implementation of a government program doesn't necessarily convince people that government can successfully implement programs. Antipathy toward government even among many who receive both Medicare and Social Security -- two of the most successful government programs in history -- is remarkably strong. In fact, by some measures, the elderly have the most skeptical views of government. For instance, in the latest version of the Pew values survey, 64 percent of those over 65 -- who are either on Medicare and Social Security or know that they will be soon -- said that "when something is run by the government, it is usually inefficient and wasteful" (see page 34 here). That compares to only 43 percent of those age 18 to 29.' "

Unfortunately, the Clintonites also embraced and promoted that lying, phony message and repealed government regulations like Glass-Steagall and rammed through destructive legislation like NAFTA and the Obama administration seems to be continuing along that same damaging path.

This kind of reactionary, frenzied, conservative organized mob (like the GOP congressional aides in 2000 in Florida, and repeated by GOP operatives in 2004, 2006, and 2008) is one of the GOP dirty tricks, endlessly and successfully reprised and reworked by their political operatives.  Democrats (especially those on Capitol Hill and in the White House)) always behind the curve, have remained silent, ineffective, or turncoat since the Reagan era while the GOP right wing, (which is mainly what the GOP has consisted of after 1964) promoted the incessant, prevaricating message for 30 years that government is the problem.

It also points to the terrible ignorance of American citizenry about their government.

From Truthout in 2007: "...Americans' ignorance of their own history and institutions is no longer a matter of debate. It has been verified in survey after survey.

"For example, one survey, cited by Rosa Brooks in the Los Angeles Times, found that although 52 percent of Americans could name two or more of the characters from "The Simpsons," only 28 percent could identify two of the freedoms protected under the First Amendment. Another recent poll found that 77 percent of Americans could name at least two of the Seven Dwarfs from "Snow White," but only 24 percent could name two or more Supreme Court justices. Yet another poll showed that only two-thirds of Americans could identify all three branches of government; only 55 percent of Americans were aware that the Supreme Court can declare an act of Congress unconstitutional; and 35 percent thought that it was the intention of the founding fathers to give the president "the final say" over Congress and the judiciary."

And at the AFL-CIO blog, Mike Hall wrote: "Andrea Batista Schlesinger in a Point of View guest column at the AFL-CIO website, a renewed and strong emphasis on civics is even more vital in the 21st century.

"Since 1969, young people have been tested on  civics knowledge—their understanding of the inner workings of government and their rights and responsibilities as citizens. In 2006, only one in four 12th-graders met what Schlesinger calls a fairly low-bar definition of “proficient.” Only 5 percent of high school seniors could explain three ways in which the president can be checked by the legislative or judicial branches (see answers below). Only 28 percent of eighth-graders could identify the significance of the Declaration of Independence.

When presented with a photograph of the 1963 March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr., only one in four could explain “two specific ways in which marches and demonstrations such as the one illustrated can achieve political goals.”

"One reason young people have such an abysmal grasp of how government functions and how people can influence government and bring about change is the demise of civics education in schools, she says.

When  civics was more important in the schools in the 20th century, for example, children brought home civics grades on their report cards. In fact, students took three civics classes, including Problems in Democracy, in which they talked about current affairs and challenges facing American government….Today, that course is gone, with nothing to replace it.

"Schlesinger warns that the lack of civics knowledge on the part of our young people is a long-term threat. Studies show the decision to vote—and the basis upon which people make their decisions in the voting booth—”can be traced to our civics knowledge.”

These town meeting disrupting thugs, are factually and civics ignorant that Medicare, Social Security, veterans hospitals and medical coverage are government programs; let alone the health coverage and other benefits of active military and their families, as well as the health care and retirement benefits of the elected denizens on Capitol Hill and federal employees are government provided.

And, these right wing robots, willingly or not duped and deceived by their right wing GOP elected officials and handlers are examples those who Paul Waldman describes: "even as they take advantage of their government health care and pensions, drive on their government roads, play in their government parks, surf the Internet their government created, feel protected by their government police and fire departments, and generally enjoy the benefits of government's efforts, ....will continue to believe that their government might just be trying to kill them."

Perhaps, as William Fisher writes in the Truthout article, Rosa Brooks has a solution that would be poetic justice: " Her zinger, however, is that she wants to make native-born Americans take the test too - and deport them to their last known countries of ancestry if they flunk. Why, she asks, 'should we ask first-generation immigrants to know more about the United States than the rest of us?' "