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Former Alaska governor and Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin this week tried to sell the bizarrely twisted story that the midnight ride of Paul Revere to warn colonists that the British were coming was actually a ride to warn the British not to mess with the colonies. 鈥淚 know my American history,鈥� Palin , arguing that 鈥減art of [Revere鈥檚] ride was to warn the British that were already there that 鈥楬ey, you鈥檙e not going to succeed. You鈥檙e not going to take American arms.鈥欌��

As odd as it might seem, offering up twisted versions of history based on a hodgepodge of distortions has become extremely fashionable among ultraconservatives and antigovernment 鈥淧atriot鈥� groups. In fact, the Tea Party Patriots, a group based in Georgia, plans to celebrate Constitution Day on Sept. 17 by spreading the work of the Idaho-based National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS), a conspiracy-prone think tank founded by .

鈥淧atriots across the country are concerned that students in the public schools are not being taught about our founding documents,鈥� a flyer urging schools to adopt the program reads. 鈥淲e want our children and grand children to be taught the meaning of the fundamental documents that created our incomparable nation.鈥� The flyer encourages supporters to write letters to school boards, school superintendents and media to inform them of Constitution Day, as well as flooding schools and libraries with NCCS materials.

In many ways, the widespread acceptance of the NCCS is the culmination of years of work. For nearly four decades, in fact, representatives from the organization have been crisscrossing the nation to propagate the group鈥檚 message. (Its president, Earl Taylor, told last year, 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to flood the nation. 鈥� And it鈥檚 happening.鈥�)

The NCCS promotes three central ideas: that divine guidance allowed the United States to thrive; that the modern federal government is tyrannical and implicitly sinful; and that a divine reckoning looms that will tear society apart and bring down America鈥檚 government. These ideas have grown increasingly popular in both the Patriot movement and the Tea Parties.

Recently, Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN) spoke to an and said the founding fathers ended slavery. (Several of the nation鈥檚 founders, including Thomas Jefferson, among others, were slave owners, and it wasn鈥檛 until the conclusion of the Civil War nearly a century later that slavery was abolished.)

While the Tea Party Patriots are busy spreading Skousen鈥檚 teachings, most constitutional scholars view the former FBI staffer and prominent John Birch Society member as a thinker prone to indefensible distortions. The in Washington, D.C., a think tank 鈥渄edicated to fulfilling the progressive promise鈥� of the constitution, is fighting the 鈥淎dopt a School Constitution Week Education Program鈥� by telling 鈥渟chool boards they should teach the constitution, but out of their history textbooks.鈥�

鈥淸The Tea Party Patriots鈥橾 interest is in educating/indoctrinating the youth of America,鈥� said Doug Kendall, the center鈥檚 founder. 鈥淚t鈥檚 incumbent upon our schools and our teachers to teach our kids historical facts, not the perspective of any ideological organization.鈥�

At least one library has already begun collecting materials for the program. The Llano County Public Library in central Texas accepted Skousen鈥檚 books from the local Tea Party chapter, specifically biographies on George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Skousen鈥檚 magnum opus The Making of America.

County librarian Dian Ray told Hatewatch she knew the books offered a skewed version of history, but stressed it was not the library鈥檚 responsibility to 鈥渃ensor鈥� a perspective from patrons. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 censor,鈥� Ray said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e supposed to provide a balanced view of both sides of a subject, if we can.鈥�