I can answer my own question here. Sadly, yes. Many Americans are mind-bogglingly ignorant of how our government works and watching the Arlen Specter Town Hall meeting in Lebanon, PA is reinforcing all of my worst fears about the lack of knowledge and critical thinking skills of the citizenry. The result of decades of dis-investment in public education and the crass politicization of EVERY ISSUE (both Repubs and Dems have contributed, in my opinion) but the Rove/Luntz playbook is in full effect on the health care debate. More observations after the jump:
Okay. First things first- there are very basic issues of the structures and processes of our government that are clearly not understood by the questioners at these meetings. People are livid- yelling at Senator Specter that he needs to vote against a HOUSE bill! He has reiterated at least 10 times that the Senate does not have a Health Care bill before it at this point.
There have been suggestions to Senator Specter that he "create" a referendum system at the Federal level without following any of the current, Constitutionally required steps! I'm not a big fan of Senator Specter or, for that matter, very many of our elected representatives BUT I think it is ridiculous that these public meetings are being dominated by the spread of misinformation and a remedial explanation of how the system works. There is little to be gained from televising shouting matches full of ignorance, racism, and misplaced ire that ultimately result in no new understanding.
We MUST demand that our education system provide all students with the information they need to understand and participate in our democratic processes and critically analyze the manipulations and misinformation used by political operatives who seek only to "beat" the opposition. Whatever happens with the legislation in question, our country is decidedly unhealthy when it comes to civic knowledge and the prognosis is not good.
OMG! Specter just called this crowd "well-informed" after an hour of absolute garbage being spewed in the guise of "citizen questioning"
I'll repeat myself, the prognosis is not good...