Beck is paranoid, and luckily for him he is in america, where both the right and the left will let him speak of his troubles, no matter how insane and wrong he is. Freedom of speech is a lovely thing, it is sad that Beck percieves that it is gone, or is trying to convince others that it is.

FVHorn, Walt, Commoner3, I agree with all three of you. It is pretty clear, if you look at the breakdown of who voted where and for whom, that the young, the idealistic, and the progressive voters who ensured Obama's election last year essentially had no one to vote for either in VA or in NJ. What's the point of voting if there's no one to vote for who will govern the way you want to be governed? That's what turned those elections toward Republicans. The two places where Congressional seats were up for grabs (NY's 23rd and California's ?th), voters sent Democrats - and particularly in California, a Democrat who is unabashedly in support of single-payer and thus more progressive than his predecessor.

I truly believe that the message being sent by Tuesday's election was that those who wanted meaningful and substantial change, particularly regarding health care, but also with respect to the wars that should be ended, and the re-introduction of a Sheriff on Wall Street (complete with some regulations with teeth), are feeling betrayed. They are not seeing anyone in the White House BACKING UP the Weiners and the Graysons - who are really and truly the ones championing the values of those who put Obama into office.

Honestly, I think you're not seeing protests along the lines of the teabaggers, etc. (and those horrific protesters with whom so many "big name" Representatives aligned themselves with yesterday) by progressives - yet - because, deep down, perhaps far-too-idealistically, we are hoping that Obama still intends to ride in on a white horse and demand single payer, or something close to it. If he doesn't come out and really start twisting some arms and knocking some heads (and if Joe Lieberman doesn't get his chairmanship stripped) pretty soon, I think we're all going to feel like we were sucker punched. But we don't want to believe that that's going to be the end game - not yet. Yeah, we still want to believe. We still want our hope and idealism to be vindicated.

If we're forced to buy insurance from private companies at exorbitant rates for half-assed coverage, I, for one, will feel more than disappointed. I'll feel betrayed. And I will never vote for either Democrat or Republican again - unless, of course, we have sweeping campaign finance reform. (I'm not holding my breath.) I don't even care what kind of coverage it is. I do not want to be told from what PRIVATE COMPANY (which will always have shareholders to answer to) I MUST purchase anything from - ever. That is a far bigger threat to my freedom than single-payer ever thought about being.

I hope that my kindred spirits out there are waiting, watching, and biding their time. I hope that our belief in Obama's rhetoric will not be in vain. But if we're sold out, if this vocal, mostly highly ill-informed, grossly gullible and shamelessly manipulated minority ends up swaying this Administration into not getting this Congress into line, then I sincerely hope that we will stand up and finally begin electing Progressive candidates who really and truly want to lead this nation into the future.

After that extended dressing down from FVHorn one is reluctant to criticize anything Left of Center, but I’ll try to be civil.

The red phone is nothing more than a prop. It’s a chess piece. And with it, Beck has “checked” the Progressive movement. It works because it doesn’t ring. Like so many tricks these Tricksters employ, it has no connection to reality at all (much less an active line) but to an idea – that Government doesn’t care.

The story goes, “only entertainers like him and O’Reilly and Limbaugh care.” The irony that people who pull down unimaginable millions are the conscience and voice of the elderly, the unemployed and the middle and working classes is lost in the fury of the game.

This is a game the Right wing owns. They have one major cable network (therefore unregulated as all are by the FCC) and countless radio and Internet outlets. Their messages seep into millions of American homes, populated by people facing genuine hardship and anxiety over all the things we care about: war(s), unemployment, Wall Street bonuses, health care (?) and most of all their safety. So Beck issues the challenge to the WH to make them feel safe and secure as HE defines it and of course the phone never rings and it looks like the White House doesn’t care. It’s a trick. The phone line goes behind the green curtain of the Wizard. It’s a joke. But it works. Sadly this game is one the Democrats do not know how to play and haven’t for quite a long time. So they ignore Beck. The way Kerry ignored the Swift boaters. And the silence as Beck says, is the affirmation of their guilt, the validation of his trumped-up charges.

The Democrats are outmaneuvered constantly by saying it’s all lies and try countering it with facts, when facts don’t matter to a constituency that’s angry and without hope.

However, THEIR phone never rings either. Except to ask them to vote or to send money. Obama for all his communication skills, hasn’t yet figured out how to speak to them. Or Beck for that matter and it would be a breeze. Obama can’t tap into their frustration and he can’t invigorate their hope. Beck can, even if it’s just to get them “Mad as Hell” and to go to pointless tea parties or to pray for Armageddon.

So let me ask, what is the downside if one day that phone rang and it was Obama? What would Beck say if the President said “I’m not gonna address all of the stuff you put out there because frankly you and I both know a lot of it is just show business. And you’re in show business. However you raise some valid concerns that a lot of Americans share and I’ll try to answer them. Here’s what they are. The stimulus. Health care. etc." There are valid progressive answers to all of it and he could articulate them and cut Beck off at his weak knees. Of course, Obama's advisers would scream “No! Never! Don’t give Beck credibility.” But it’s proof of the bubble they live in down there in D.C. to deny that he already HAS credibility. It’s just not based in truth, but it affects voters.

Of course I really should go further and criticize the administration on one point. I am amazed that these folks can’t find anybody to work for them who wasn’t previously either a Wall Street Robber Baron or a loony who quotes Mao or had an affiliation with some radical fringe group from the 60’s. I mean this is insane. I have to tell you I came of age through the 60’s, went to a radical enough campus, did a few years in the Army, and I knew plenty of correct thinking liberals / progressives who were not in the Labor Party or Lyndon LaRouche or the fricking Simbionese Liberation Army. (I jest, I jest.) But can you take my point? I even know Liberal and Progressive and left leaning Moderate Corporate executives. I have well paid friends in banking who think the bonuses are obscene and support the renewal of Glass Steagall.

Why does he hire these brigands and fruitcakes and make it so easy for Beck & Co? Do his idiot staffers vet people to see if they paid taxes on their Haitian nannies, but not if they had affiliations with radical leftists in the 70’s?

Does he or his staff realize who and what they are up against? That it’s a game they’d better learn? Who’s got this guy’s back anyhow?

What is happening to CD? The commentary is recently being filled with "conservatives" and "independents" who rag on about the "left" and about how the left is leaving out the "real Americans", and call progressives "elitists" who will not listen to wurkin' folk, and are unfair to l'il ole capitalism and corporations... and such horse pucky, seemingly straight from the lab of Roger Ailes... Roger, you out there, is that you? Or is it the evil Republican Frank Luntz, Mr. Forked Tongue himself. And these commenters back-and-forth interminably.

These comments are designed to divide and demoralize the progressive readers of this site, make liberals feel guilty about 'not being objective'; which guilt would NEVER happen to the liars of the right.

It is just as the hokum of 'can't we all just get along' (answer is, due to the rightwingers, No) is destroying Obama's presidency in the face of united rightwing intransigence... even though Obama came in with more-than-hand outstretched to those losers, he could be said almost to grovel to make the Republicans feel comfortable with him... and still they revile him and call him Socialist...IF ONLY!

And no, I am not surprised, so not disappointed; and yes I am still glad at least that it is Obama and not the Horrorshow of McCain/Palin, with more totally unchecked power-drunk Republican rightwing rule... as we all should be. Palin got a taste of power, and now won't go back to Methtown, Alaska, not even to be governor, or rather to do her duty as governor, of that backwater, as apparently she sees it now.

But the left's tendency to want to be inclusive and understanding leaves the rightwing sucker-punching every blooming bit of progress. On the other hand, there are posters who are doctrinaire, and send any liberal who, say, did not stand with Cynthia McKinney under the bus. They do have a tiny party.

Don't throw anyone at least trying to be progressive, trying to be supportive, trying to be liberal, trying to be leftwing, overboard. And that includes Obama voters, who at least thought they were voting liberally and progressively. We do need everyone, and I mean everyone. Just more progress is needed.

However, anyone who has rightwing views already has plenty of voice. That is all the MSM presents. An example: why is Joe Lieberman STILL on Sunday morning talk shows...AT ALL, never mind almost constantly as it seems? Who does he represent, his party IS as I recall, a party of ONE... JOE LIEBERMAN, of the JOE LIEBERMAN FOR JOE LIEBERMAN PARTY (paid for by the RNC and brought to you by AIPAC). What the Hell?

So, this is a left-wing site; self-styled "moderates" (center-rightists to me) and "real (right-winger) Americans", go gloat somewhere else, as such comment is worse that worthless. The right wing long ago made 'Liberal' a curse word. Do not expect any understanding from me when 'Conservative' is a curse word, as it should be. And don't expect appreciation when you say the Republicans are gonna win again, hoo-ray.

There are now way too many "libertarians" and others of that ilk posting, and now way too many muck-it-up people that are apologists for actions of the right, and positing that Americans are already fed up with Obama, so will return- should return- Republicans to power, with a general point of the "left has got it all wrong". Not here baby; are these people even reading the articles on CD?

And Obama being pounded into the ground all the time. Well, the road starts somewhere, and it sure aint going to start with Chomsky being elected or Nader or even Kucinich, so take what we can get, and Boldly Claim America is moving En Masse to the Left and becoming more Liberal, by, yes, electing Obama. And IT IS, though not without a nasty dogfight by the Well-Monied Lobbyist-Rich Right, and not fast enough. And tell the Republican obstructionists and propagandists to get with the program or get out of the way. No excuses, no apologies, no 'bipartisanship', no kumbaya. But of course, money still pulls many strings. So don't expect miracles.

As far as the elections, the pathetic voter turnouts of NJ and VA enabled the angry dittoheads, who always are mad enough to vote NO on everything and NO to them commie democrats, to turn the elections. As there were no progressives running for governorships, so what, who cares? Better to look at the loss in NY by the Conservative in a Conservative district, with ALL the 'big' names of the conservative right caught with egg on their faces and their pants down. Omen for the future.

As far as Beck, did his book cover designers slyly satirize him, all dressed up as some Marx Brothers Musical Transylvanian General/Great Dictator/Idi Amin, with a Warning posted over his head, to wit, Arguing with Idiots!..and here is the chief one? Anyone is doing that by engaging in arguments with the fundamentalist rightwingers like Beck, whose minds forever shut out any logic that disturbs their lunatic world view, much as Galileo was condemned for being correct... but inconvenient.

What a lot of hypocrisy from both sides of this debate. Over the past 20 years most American companies have shifted all or part of their production to China. The country has lost so many manufacturing jobs that will most probably never come back. Companies have made billions and we have gone along with all of this in the form of cheap consumer goods from China. Walmart has led the charge and we have followed willingly.

We deserve what we are now getting.

Ignorant, frustrated people need someone like Beck ranting away like an idiot. If it wasn`t him, it would be someone else. It is very hard to combat ignorance, as things do not have to be true and accurate for that type. People are only hurting themselves by listening to those types of noisemakers, but they will do it anyway.

You have to give Thomas Frank credit for just being able to watch Beck.

Beck and his rants are symptomatic of the dumbing down of America. When people lose their jobs or their homes they become scared and angry. They can look for their saviors either on the right or the left. Remember that Hitler was democratically elected amidst the post world war one depression.

I rarely listen in or watch Beck, Limbaugh, Savage, etc. And, why would I? These back-asswards shrill, ignorant, bigoted, old, bad attitude white men do not listen to anyone about anything at anytime. Their ratings would suffer if they stopped the outrageous antics.

I just do what a lot of decent folks do, I do not purchase their books or the products from advertisers who sponsor of these programs and I have emailed the sponsors that I used to frequent, that I would no longer be using their products and why. So far, ~60 sponsors have declined to continue advertising on Beck's show and who knows how many advertsers the rest of the angry, hate-filled KKK talkers have lost. I guess that is maybe the only way to make my disapproval known as these men have a tin ear when it comes to anyone else's voice or opinion.

never watched beck...never will...

For the sake of argument I will grant Beck that communism is not a good ideology. But what I do not understand is why Beck does not prod his viewers or the WH that he hates to stop borrowing trillions and buying trillions worth of goods from a communist country. I think I have a hint about this dichotomy

1 thought going through my mind:

(First, gerrymandering has made any radical shift in the electoral map pretty slim, and that there was in fact no radical shift yesterday)

is that- "are chickens coming home to roost?"
After years of pandering to the far right for votes (and yes 'those people' really have a great energy and really get-out-the-vote) and then ignoring them when in office, the GOP has alienated at least a third of their base, and at least 10% of the electorate.

I'd love to see numbers and comparisons on "Tea-baggers" (can I assume these are "tax-focused" people?) and "Values-voters" (can I assume these are bigots... um, sorry, Christians?)

I want that phone number.
Over a telephone, I can probably do a close enough impersonation to drive him over the edge, and boy, would I love to try!
Nothin' like messing with unstable people for pure entertainment!

In the Age of Fun House Absurdity Nonsequitur as Political Insight, Glenn Beck is the momentary champ.

I wish the Yes Men would tap into Becks red phone and call him and con him. Wouldn't that be fun!

From a pursuasion point of view, the best conclusion the pursuader can hope for is the one the listener comes to on his/her own. The phone is a great stage prop and is a great symbol. Its silence is the symbol that help that is on the way.

Here is Glenn Beck's cell phone number: AUschwitz 9-1000. You can't leave any voicemail messages right now; his box is full of desperate marriage proposals from Michelle Bachmann.

Hot Line of Hot Air. Reminds me of a character on the Muppets with a balloon filled with hot air for a head that kept blowing up. If only..

The other end of the Red phone line just goes up Beck's ass to a vibrating egg.

But we should be thankful to Beck..thanks to him and Failin' Pailin, a 100-year long traditional GOP seat is now in Dem hands.

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats

Please, Mr President, call me! We can debate whether you're a Red Communist or just a 'useful-idiot' socialist. A fair debate over whether the finance sector collapse was caused by Acorn alone, or Acorn and Washington in concert. A helpful conversation about whether Al Gore invented Global Warming to control the World or just America.

My listeners and I just want to know how bad things really are. We just need your help, ya see, to figure out whether this country can be saved, or sadly must be purged in blood from head to toe.

Beck is not the future of the conservative movement. Get a line to reality.

What should worry this author and most should be the reason for this guys growing popularity.

Its hard to parody something if there is nothing to parody. This administration seems filled with fools.

And Mr. Frank...its not a good idea to mention that you admire mass murderers if you want to be thought of as smart.