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Glenn Beck’s Redemption Song
About halfway through Saturday's "Restoring Honor" rally on the DC mall, I realized that I was starting to like Glenn Beck.
Before any friends of mine initiate involuntary commitment proceedings, let me explain. It's not that I really liked Beck, but more that I experienced his likeability. Whether or not he's sincere, I came to admire his ability to project sincerity and to create coherence out of his incoherent rambling about religion, race, and redemption.
As a result, I'm more afraid for our political future than ever.
First, to be clear: Beck is the embodiment of everything I dislike about the U.S. politics and contemporary culture. As a left/feminist with anti-capitalist and anti-empire politics, I disagree with most every policy position he takes. As a journalist and professor who values intellectual standards for political discourse, I find his willful ignorance and skillful deceit to be unconscionable.
So, I'm not looking for a charismatic leader to follow and I haven't been seduced by Beck's televisual charm, nor have I given up on radical politics. Instead, I'm trying to understand what happened when I sat down at my computer on Saturday morning and plugged into the live stream of the event. Expecting to see just another right-wing base-building extravaganza that would speak to a narrow audience, I planned to watch for a few minutes before getting onto other projects. I stayed glued to my chair for the three-hour event.
My conclusion: What I saw was the most rhetorically and visually sophisticated political spectacle in recent memory. Beck was able to both connect to a right-wing base while at the same time moving beyond the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement, potentially creating a new audience for his politics. It's foolish to make a prediction based on one rally, but I think Beck's performance marked his move from blowhard broadcaster to front man for a potentially game-changing political configuration.
My advice: Liberals, progressive, and leftists -- who may be tempted to denounce him as a demagogue and move on -- should take all this seriously and try to understand what he's doing. Here's my best attempt to understand it.
Religion
There's nothing new about mixing Christianity and right-wing politics in the United States, and Beck put forward a familiar framework: America is a Christian nation that honors religious freedom. Christians lead the way in the United States, but the way is open to all who believe in God. Anyone teaching the "lasting principles" found in all faiths is welcome, despite theological differences. "What they do agree on is God is the answer," Beck said in his call for a central role for religious institutions, whether they be churches, synagogues, or mosques.
But for all the religious rhetoric, Beck never talked about the hot-button issues that are important to conservative Christians. No mention of abortion or gays and lesbians. Theologically based arguments against evolution and global warming were not on the table. No one bashed Islam as a devilish faith.
Instead, Beck concentrated on basics on which he could easily get consensus. God has given us the pieces -- faith, hope, and charity -- and all we have to do is put them together. Rather than arrogantly assert that God is on our side, he said, we have to be on God's side.
Beck may eventually have to voice clear opposition to abortion and gay marriage to hold onto conservative Christian supporters, but on Saturday it was his apparent religious sincerity that mattered. I have no way to know how serious Beck's faith in a traditional conception of God really is, but it doesn't matter. He sounds sincere and moves sincere; he creates a feeling of sincerity. He brings an emotional candor to public discussion of religion that is unusual for someone in his line of work. When religious people believe that someone's profession of faith is real -- that it's rooted in a basic decency and is deeply felt -- then differences over doctrine become less crucial.
There has been some discussion of whether Beck, a convert to Mormonism, can really connect to Protestants and Catholics, some of whom view the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a cult rather than an authentic Christian denomination. No doubt some evangelical/fundamentalist Christians will reject Beck, but his personal appeal could overcome those objections for many others.
Race
There's also nothing new in Beck's analysis of race. Like most conservatives, he argues that America's racism is mostly a thing of the past, and that racial justice means a level playing field that offers equal opportunity but does not guarantee equal outcomes. Rather than come to terms with the way white supremacy continues to affect those outcomes through institutionalized racism and unconscious prejudices, folks like Beck prefer a simple story about personal transcendence and the end of racism.
What was different about Beck's version of this story was the supporting cast. There were a lot of non-white people on the stage, including a significant number of African Americans. The rally went well beyond the tokenism that we are used to seeing, not only in the Republican Party but also in institutions throughout society. Beck not only gave a featured speaking slot to Alveda King -- one of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s nieces, no doubt selected to bolster his claim to be speaking in the MLK tradition -- but also paid close attention to race throughout the day. Take a look at the lineup for the presenters of the three civilian badges of merit for faith, hope, and charity: An American Indian presenting to an African-American; a white man presenting to a Dominican; and a Mexican-American presenting to a white man, with a black woman accepting on his behalf.
Is it all cynical and symbolic? For those of us who are white, do we have a right to ask that question in the presence of so much passion from the people of color on stage? These weren't cardboard cutouts shoved in front of a camera to add color, but an eclectic mix of people, all espousing a fundamental faith that they seemed to share with Beck.
Whether a movement rooted in Beck's approach can gain wide acceptance in non-white communities is not the only question. For white people who are struggling with how to live (or, at least, appear to live) a commitment to racial justice, this kind of space will be attractive. Tea Party gatherings are weighed down by an overt racial ideology that limits their appeal; Beck may have a strategy that overcomes that problem, creating a movement that has a significant enough non-white component to make white people feel good about themselves without really challenging white dominance.
Redemption
The key message of the "Restoring Honor" rally was redemption, personal and collective, the personal intertwined with the collective. Unlike some reactionary right-wingers, Beck spoke often about America's mistakes -- though all of them are set safely in the past. Rather than try to downplay slavery, he highlighted it. It is one of America's "scars," a term he repeated over and over, to emphasize that our moral and political failures are from history, not of this moment.
"America has been both terribly good and terribly bad," leaving us with a choice, he said. "We either let those scars crush us or redeem us." Just as all individuals sin, so do all nations. Just as in our personal life we seek redemption, so do we as a nation. Framed that way, who would not want to choose the path of redemption?
But while on one level America has sinned, on another level it is beyond reproach. "It's not just a country, it's an idea, that man can rule himself," Beck said. An idea remains pure, which means we don't have to wonder whether there's something about our political and economic systems that leads to failures; injustice must be the product of individual's mistakes, not flaws in the systems in which they operate.
This is all standard conservative ideology as well. The United States is not just a nation struggling to be more democratic, but is the essence of democracy. Our wars are, by definition, wars of liberation. The wealth-concentrating capitalist system is not an impediment to freedom but is the essence of freedom. How any of this jibes with the egalitarian and anti-imperial spirit of the Gospels is off the table, because the United States is a Christian country and the idea of the United States is beyond reproach.
But, again, the key to Beck's success is not just the ideology but the way he puts it all together. A nation whose wealth rests on genocide, slavery, and ongoing domination of the Third World is the nation that defines faith, hope, and charity? Beck "proves" it by connecting Moses to George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, Jr. All are part of the same tradition, the same striving for freedom.
Beck is the perfect person to sing this redemption song. He talks openly of the alcohol and drug abuse that ruled his life until he discovered his faith in God. Unlike George W. Bush, Beck tells the story with conviction. Perhaps both Bush and Beck tell the truth about their experience, but Beck makes you feel it is the truth in a way Bush could never pull off.
Reactions
Wait a minute, you say, none of this makes a lick of sense. Beck tosses a confused and confusing word salad that rewrites history and ignores reality. Maybe it sounds good, if you throw in enough energetic music and inspirational personal stories from veterans, ministers, philanthropists, and skillful TV personalities. But it's really nothing but old right-wing ideology, no matter how slick and heartfelt the presentation.
What would Beck's supporters say? Probably something like this:
So, you are one of those who wants to keep picking at the scars. Why do you lack faith, reject hope, refuse to offer charity? Why do you turn away from the values and principles that made us great? Glenn said it: "We must advance or perish. I choose, advance." Glenn wants to help us advance, and you want us to perish.
I agree that Beck is wrong about almost everything. I agree that given his record of demagoguery and deception, he is unfit for work in the news media or political leadership. I agree that he may be one of those people incapable of sincerity, someone whose "real" personality is indistinguishable from his stage persona. I agree that he's a scary guy.
I agree with all that, which is why I don't really like Glenn Beck. If I ever got close to Beck I would probably like him even less. But after watching his performance on a screen over those three hours, I understand why it's so easy to like him, at least on a screen. His convoluted mix of arrogance and humility is likeable, so long as one doesn't look too closely at the details.
More than ever, people in the United States don't want to look at details, because the details are bleak. Beck is on the national stage at a time when we face real collapse. One need not be a Revelation-quoting end-timer to recognize that we are a nation on the way down, living on a planet that is no longer able to supply the endless bounty of our dreams. That's a difficult reality to face, one that many clamor to deny.
The danger of Beck is not just his appeal to fellow conservatives, but rather his appeal to anyone who wants to deny reality. My fear is not that he will galvanize a conservative base and make a bid for leadership of that part of the political spectrum, but that his message will resonate with moderates, maybe even some liberals, who despair over the future.
Does worrying about Beck's appeal beyond the far right seem far fetched? The most important rhetorical move Beck made on Saturday was to claim the rally "has nothing to do with politics." Many people across the ideological spectrum want desperately to escape from contemporary politics, which seems to be a source of endless frustration and heartbreak.
To those people, Glenn Beck's redemption song will be seductive.
[A version of this essay appeared on the Texas Observer website at http://www.texasobserver.org/
78 Comments so far
Show AllBeck is an entertainer, not a savior. Those who understand the difference can "advance". Those who cannot differentiate will continue to pick at scabs.
The Austrian painter and Death Valley Days start both proved that most people fall for the entertainer as savior stunt. Considering the current poltical environment, expect many Beck-endorsed candidates to win in the November election.
He is a self-admitted entertainer.
...With a deadpan, {Glenn} Beck insists that he is not political: "I could give a flying crap about the political process." Making money, on the other hand, is to be taken very seriously, and controversy is its own coinage. {Glenn Beck Inc. is} "an entertainment company," Beck says. He has managed to monetize virtually everything that comes out of his mouth...
-- Lacey Rose, Forbes, April 26, 2010, http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0426/entertainment-fox-news-simon-schuster-glenn-beck-inc.html
If Dr. Jensen would like to see who Glenn Beck really is, he should watch this video:
"Glenn Beck's sobbing secrets revealed: A little Vicks Vaporub gets the tears flowing"
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/glenn-becks-sobbing-secrets-revealed
Sorry, but I missed any charm or charisma that Beck may possess; to me he is nothing more than a cynical flim-flam man and Latter Day shock jock, constantly searching for new outrages to attract attention and amass more money and clout for his media empire. This recent bout of calculated religious fervor, I have no doubt, is yet another obnoxious ploy to sell books, gold coins, or himself. I'll believe Beck is a Christian the day he donates his riches to the poor, per Jesus' instructions, and stops judging those who would like to bring social justice, enlightenment and progress to a world dying of poverty, ignorance and stupidity.
That his message may resonate with 'moderate' voters, and that he may gain a position of power within the GOP, or declare himself the new Messiah, doesn't faze me -- we will get the democracy we deserve and then the Teabaggers and other ignorati who buy into the crazed ahistoric rants of the Beck's and Limbaugh's can repent at their leisure as they pick through garbage cans for food or work for feudal wages, along with the rest of us.
Perhaps our utter collapse will lead to a rebirth of humanity and decency over the corporate avarice and unconscionable deception of the sleazy manipulators like Glenn Beck.
>> Teabaggers and other ignorati who buy into the crazed ahistoric rants of the
>> Beck's and Limbaugh's can repent at their leisure as they pick through garbage
>> cans for food or work for feudal wages, along with the rest of us.
>> Perhaps our utter collapse will lead to a rebirth of humanity and decency
>> over the corporate avarice and unconscionable deception of the sleazy
>> manipulators like Glenn Beck.
The rebirth has already begun. Leave the dead to bury the dead. A certain number of people will always claim that the frying pan is not really that hot, even when they are inside it. They only jump out when they see other people do so. A fair number will prefer to burn up rather than make a dramatic move. By being happier, more zestful, more compassionate, more spiritual, more engaged, more quirky, more caring than the fear-frozen person, we convince them to follow us out of the madness.
Of course, I think you know all this already . . . just a friendly reminder.
Kip
I agree. Right now we don't need to be worrying about what the Glenn Becks are doing, we should be focusing on what the Democrats are doing! They are the ones in power and they are screwing us far more than ever could the GOP! The GOP is clumsy and obvious about its political agenda. Obama gave us a "health-care" plan only lusted after by the Right, while America bent over backwards and praised the Dems for their health-care "reform" bill. The financial sector is profiting beyond it's wildest dreams under Obama, "defense" spending is at an all time high and Social Security and public education are on the chopping block - thanks to the Democrats.
Yes, just as 9/11 gave Team Dubya a license to steal and murder, the tea party has given Team Obama an opportunity to distract us while they utilize their license to steal and murder.
raydelcamino: excellent point, very succinct.
Why you would favor the democrats contolling this great country over anybody else is a mystery. (You can say nothing in there favor only bash republicans) Who is your favorite lifetime bureaucrat? Barney, Maxine, Nancy, (with or without the facelift, I'd like to know how much their personal wealth been enhanced since they took office?) Who really paid for Bill's library, who will pay the taxes to pay the fat salaries these public servants demand, and who is going to pay the bills while most Americans lose their jobs because America no longer manufactures anything. Who is responsible for that? Fannie and Freddie, who was overseeing that abortion?
Abortion and same sex marriage, now there are some important issues we can discuss all the while Rome burns.
The best =home audience= was probably found in ward Day Rooms of mental hospitals all across the United States. Onward Drooling Soldiers.
Trylon
Well, here's how I see it as a socialist, who admittedly doesn't listen to Glenn Beck and didn't see the speech.
It isn't just the personality that appeals to people, it is in fact the bogus right wing "tea party" ideology. The reason it works is because these right wingers make one fundamentally correct suggestion, namely, the government isn't on your side.
They are, of course, completely wrong about why the government isn't on our side. It's because they completely represent the capitalist class that liberals believe the government can regulate.
The rest of the nonsense is an appeal to tradition that is not at all critiqued head on. Sure, liberals and progressives might think that slavery is totally relevant while conservatives say its "in the past," but far too many Americans agree that the slave owning "founding fathers" deserve nothing short of worship. And of course, almost everyone worships the constitution, which is ironic if you're a right winger who doesn't like the state, since what is law if not an instrument of the state? In reality, our "rights" are more important as principles that we should always stick to more than as words that enforcers of such laws can always choose to ignore.
More to the point, the appeal to the past works even beyond the coded appeal to racism that the tea partiers are engaged in, because everyone claims to agree with it in principle, when, in fact, they shouldn't.
The founding fathers did not bring slavery to this country, they didn't invent it..of course history has no value to socialists...they must not believe that you should learn from history. I think that even today slavery is thriving on this planet somewhere... do you think its in a capitalistic country, I'm not sure where though. They even cut off heads and stone people to death elsewhere in the world.
But, undoubtedly the US is the worst of them all so backwards and ignorant are these American capitalists. Anyway, if you check on history you'll find that Jefferson tried unsuccessfully to end slavery in Virginia ten years before the Declaration. Tea party ideology is bogus. Small government, less regulation, what a ridiculus ideology. Government funded youth groups all chanting together the same slogan, now that's my idea of a solid ideology. Government funded unions where workers pay dues so the leadership can pay the "master" and keep him in office, how does that work for you? Racism, you have a big problem with that don't you? Al and Jesse are the biggest racists, they ooze racism. I don't like socialists they are ignorant ideologs...does that make me a racist of some type?
kennybro, the sort of socialism you cite is not the kind practiced in, say, Norway and many other countries today. 'Socialism' has become a term as elastic and misunderstood as 'democratic republic.' There is nothing in our Constitution that enshrines corporations or so-called 'free-market' capitalism. In fact, the tea the original Tea Partiers in Boston were dumping in the harbor in 1774 belonged to one of the world's first global corporations, the East India Tea Company.
BTW, the most ardent practitioners of strict Islamic Sharia law that recommends lopping off hands and stoning for various minor offenses, and teaches a virulent strain of anti-Semitism in its schools, would be our 'friends' in Saudi Arabia. Of course, we don't hear much about this in the American corporate media, since the Saudi royal family own substantial shares in our largest media conglomerates, especially Fox News parent News Corp.
I agree with the author. Its a matter of trust: who do you trust? Beck has the 'trust' demeanor; he just doesn't have the truth.
To attack Beck's 'truthiness', we have to attack two trends that have been underway in America for 10-30 years: rise in religion, and rise in militant patriotism. I believe both of these are responsible for America's recent woes, because the people who wrap themselves in the flag and cross are the same people who repeatedly ask American's to fleece themselves by cutting taxes on the wealthy, thus restricting gov't spending, and spending money on military and wars, which are worse than useless. Its gotten so bad, now they're coming for our social security, and what is Beck saying? 'Now, the liberals are coming for your social security!'
Its a difficult and indeed thankless task, but a connection must be made, Glenn-Beck-style, between the rise in overt religiousness and military patriotism in America, and an economic and political system that no longer works for the vast majority of her citizens. One way to make this more palatable, is to leave Glenn Beck and Faux News out of it. Simply draw the lines of recent history, and leave your audience with a simple conclusion: public figures who appeal to religion and overt displays of patriotism do so because they are trying to feed their audiences programs (tax cuts, etc) that the audience would reject, if given a more objective chance to study those programs. When a public figure wraps him or herself in a flag and carries a cross, its like putting a chocolate coating on a cyanide pill.
Once enough people realize why the coating is applied, they will learn to recognize people, like Beck, for what they are: charlatans.
Yes. Thats why I termed it a 'thankless task'. Who wants to stand up before the crowd and tell them that not only is their hero- and god-worship rather beside the point of constructing a civil society, but its actually getting in the way?
Actually, I'm somewhat mystified by the appeal of Glenn Beck's strategy. After the 'moral majority', and the Gingrich 'Contract with America', and all the ways Americans have been sold the same bill of 'values'-goods over the decades, Beck is selling the idea that we need a 'return to values'? REally? Are those the same values we keep 'returning to' every few years? Its like some kind of nightmare Americans refuse to wake up from.
After the way our Finance Sector has been exposed for the pirate army it is recently, what are we all discussing? A mosque in Manhattan? Lewis Carroll would absolutely recognize this place.
UBREW: Great post. Thank you!
Will they learn? The right is so full of these oily, unctuous and patronizing types. Even on MSNBC I see them telling me to buy gold. Fred Thompson, asks, "unsure of how these reverse mortgages work?-- well take it from me"--he says as he slaps me on the back. Who falls for this stuff? Truly ignorant, truly gullible and unthinking individuals who could not recognize a fallacy in reasoning to save their pea brained lives. Too dumb to know who is using them or why. Too ignorant and prejudiced to think that the message given them might be contrived to use them. Too near sighted to even imagine what a better life might be like. If this is the average American, no smarter than the average barn animal than there is no real prospect that American democracy is viable. The scalding irony, all of that crap delivered by authoritarian figures who tell us how to express our love of freedom and self determination. They should listen to me instead--I've got some wonderful investment ideas I'd like to share with you at no charge which are sure to make your rich--with no money down.
LOL, Tammons. Conservative columnist and Fox contributor Cal Thomas let the cat out of the bag on how the Fox Newsers really feel about their audience back in 2006 when he uttered this classic:
"All of them are trying to copy Fox now, to be honest. ... many of them are doing more tabloid, more big-lipped blondes, and all this kind of stuff. There's only so much of that trailer trash pie to go around."
-- Cal Thomas on Fox News Watch, 6/17/06, as quoted by Media Matters.
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200606190009
The 'trailer trash pie' is about 20 percent of the population. The stupid will always be with us, that 20 percent who fall for Fox, Beck, 'big-lipped blondes,' and gold coins that are so overpriced they have no resale value.
Thank you for watching the event for me.
Also, I prefer to look at the details because I prefer reasoned faith over blind faith.
By definition "faith" cannot be 'reasoned'.
Faith is no reason.
So 'reasoned faith' is an oxymoron and 'blind faith' is a redundant use of words.
Faith is not required to embrace morality or altruism. Nor is faith required in order to listen to the words of the wise....among whom I would certainly include many founders of religions (rarely their disciples though) and many great leaders of passive resistance in the 20th century.
What I would love to see, for a fundamental change in politics, is an evidence based approach rather than a faith-based one.
"A redundant use of words" is called a tautology.
Cheers
DId anyone listen to Michigan radio (liberal radio program) at lunch. A black pastor who attended both events said Beck's event was more in line with King's true message in which his presenters were multi-racial and not just white people. He also said Al Sharpton's speech spend too much time 'Playa Hatin' as he put it. He said he was surprised about Beck's speech because from the liberal media pre-coverage, he assumed Beck was going to be burnin crosses:) Instead he spoke of country, God, and progression.
So I can see how cd.org can assume so many bad things. And they can do it most times while bad mouthing Fox news. Hypocrisy at its finest.
Never said replacement. Thanks for playing though
TROLL Alert!
Well, Donderton, if an anonymous black pastor from Michigan said it, it must be true! And if this anonymous black pastor happens to be wheeling around in a new car next week, or his wife should be gifted by God with a new washer and dryer, we can just attribute that to another of the Lord's miracles, rather than a little 'walking-around money' dispensed in a plain envelope from, say, Americans For Prosperity or some other astroturf group. (BTW, this 'anonymous black pastor' wouldn't happen to be Armstrong Williams would it?)
For years I heard many people on the radio, from all walks of life, guarantee Saddam Hussein had WMD -- it was the major reason we invaded Iraq! Some today still believe that egregious lie -- are you one of them, Donderton?
I believe in the Holy Trinity: home, job and store...
I'm not a doctor, but I play one on teevee...
I have read and heard many a deluded mountain out of molehill maker in my life, but Professor Jensen, here are the ears and the tail, the keys to the kingdom, and the cake.
Rupert Murdoch, through his minions, gave Beck a national forum.
Why?
It could have been a classic case of misdirection and if it was it has succeeded wonderfully. After all, here we all are thinking and talking about this guy who was completely unknown to most Americans not very long ago.
It could also have been to have him promote ideas favorable to Murdoch.
But now if Beck actually becomes a player...a force in national politics...a candidate?
Well that's hitting the trifecta.
Maybe we should be thinking about how wise it is to give someone like Murdoch that kind of power, that much influence on issues that effect all our lives instead of wasting thought/energy on his performing marionettes.
Is Glenn Beck The Anti-Christ? It would seem so.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
I haven't heard who the sources were on the numbers who showed up for this rally. Whether the corporatist media exaggerates or underplays those numbers and their perceived significance will be what manufactures any national consensus about the Beck and his portion of the Tea Party McMovement. I expect Big Media to exaggerate both the numbers and their significance--helping to make the TP more significant than it would be without their crucial help.
As someone who trudged over and over again to Washington and throughout New England for many years after the start of the Iraq war, I saw the numbers gradually decline from 500,000 attendants to 300,000 to 100,000 to tens of thousands to a paltry 10,000 recorded (I would say accurately) at the first post-oBomber antiwar demonstration on the mall. The numbers were always skewed in the press, if in fact they were reported at all. The general consensus was that the lefties couldn't organize and held hostile attitudes towards each other's organizations. But I think people just gave up.
There weren't anywhere near 500,000 people attending Beck's Sermon on the Make last Saturday. CBS News hired an air photo service and they estimated the crowd at 87,000. (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014993-503544.html) Even Sarah Palin guessed the crowd at around 100,000. (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41554.html)
Also, you must remember that the Washington Mall is a popular spot for tourists, so easily a quarter to third of the 'Teabaggers For Beck' were actually apolitical and unreligious visitors or just celebrity gawkers.
50 to 100,000 show up to worship Beck; 2 million showed up for Obama's nomination, in the days when many still thought he represented real progress and change. Regardless of the Republican media spin, there is no way any political or media figure on the right can top that.
Prediction: Beck will be dropped by Rupert Murdoch in 2011 as his ratings decline; by then, he will simply have run out of BS, and his show, shunned by major national sponsors, isn't making money for Fox and News Corp is deep in debt. (Murdoch lost over $6 billion last year.) Beck -- he's a jumped-up flash in the pan.
Beck, unlike some right-wing commentators (Limbaugh, Palin) looks and acts like a reasonable middle-aged American. Until he opens his mouth. Then the sound that comes out quickly convinces me that he is an extreme radical on the far right, with bizarre ideas and solutions for our problems. It isn't clear why this was lost on the author of this article.
His attempt to preempt the anniversary of Dr. King's famous speech was in horrible taste and a very sad commentary on the gullibility of the American people.
".....looks and acts like a reasonable middle-aged American."
Did you look closely? That man has Crazy Eyes.......scares the crap out of me just to look at him. If the eyes are the windows of the soul......that building is vacant.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Beck spoke in vague, generalized platitudes and appealed to apple pie cliches designed not to offend anyone. This was in order to paint a fictitious "kinder, gentler" face on his McMovement and thereby broaden its appeal. He asked Tea Party members who showed up at this event not to carry protest signs, knowing that Tea Party events typically are crawling with far-right Tea Party bigots carrying obscenely racist protest signs that might embarrass his disgusting attempt to subvert the message of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial. Al Sharpton's speech was weak and over-general as well and he has his own history of charlatanism.
But Beck's PRESCRIPTION to "save" or "restore" America, or "reclaim the
Civil Rights moment" is what MATTERS here, and that false prescription
is scorched earth Libertarianism, which would have government throw
all the poor, elderly, infirm, unemployed and underemployed over the
side; negate all environmental protections, food safety laws and labor
protections; further deregulate banks and corporations of all kinds;
end all public education; generally abandon government oversight of
anything but the military and post office, and continue the process of
elevating the legal fiction and wanton profit desires of "corporate
personhood" above the needs of actual flesh & blood human beings,
regardless of whether they are citizens or not.
If you don't believe me then ask several Tea Party members yourself about what government regulatory oversight they would eliminate; what government programs they would cut and Cabinet agencies they would eliminate. Or better yet, ask your local media to ask them those questions on camera and watch them squirm and evade the questions-if you can get the corporate media to even ask them. The best you'll get out of a Tea Partier is that he or she will tell you that the problems of the poor, old and sick should be taken care of by family and church--even though the churches don't provide enough care for these people even WITH current, severely underfunded government anti-poverty programs that are under intensifying fiscal pressure due to our obscene military budgets, war-time tax cuts for the rich, "free trade" offshoring of tens of millions of middle-class manufacturing jobs (and all the tax revenue they used to domestically generate), and bailouts to the big banks who robbed our country of $14 Trillion dollars of wealth during and after the implosion of the Housing Bubble.
Glenn Beck's real agenda is the right of the economically down-trodden to
pray, die of preventable or treatable diseases, or starve to death in
spreading squalor and ignorance in the streets. He holds blameless
the "too big to fail" banks and mortgage resellers (and the
politicians who deregulated them) who fraudulently cost millions of
American families their breadwinners' jobs. He would leave the tens
of millions of victims of these banks, resellers and pols to the mercy
of the fictional "free market" without food stamps, unemployment
benefits or any other government aid.
Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out the DIRECT cost of un-just wars
that enrich a select economic elite to government revenues that would
be better used for programs of broader economic & social uplift of the
poor. Glenn Beck promotes an agenda of economic and social
down-trodding upon everyone but plutocrats and those in the
upper-middle-class who serve their upper-class interests.
The ONLY purpose of the dwindling middle-class & burgeoning
lower-class to the sort of scorched earth Libertarian plutocrats who
bankroll Goebbels wannabes like Glenn Beck is to maintain minimum
necessary domestic market share for some of their globalized,
increasingly foreign-manufactured goods, and to economically
parasitize them in every other respect. This is simultaneous with a
process of gradually stripping them of any recourse in the courts, in
the media or in politics while imposing upon them an increasingly
totalitarian Police State: One that punishes citizens who videotape
criminal police misconduct on public property while claiming police
arrests in public are "private matters"; wields WMTs (Weapons of Mass
Torture) such as LRAD sound cannons on civilian protesters and Active
Denial microwave "pain beams" on prisoners, and has created a bogus
Military Commissions Tribunal "court system" for the purpose of
carrying out politically expedient media-hyped show trials of citizens
and non-citizens labeled as "terrorists" using secret Executive Branch
criterion. One that uses similarly secret criterion to order the
execution of American citizens overseas in blatant violation of the
Constitution and due process.
Metal,
brilliantly superior to Prof. Jensen's overlengthy RAMBLE!
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Glad you liked it.
You know that rule of the intenet "DON'T FEED THE TROLLS"?
Well you just broke it by paying attention and giving credence to Glenn Beck.
Glenn probably thinks "Bob Roberts" is a documentary.
LOL!! GOOD ONE!!
The ultra right and the ultra left are but two arms of the same MONSTER! Why a racist agitator such as Beck, or Sharpton have any followers is beyond my understanding! The left supports ANY religion NOT purporting to be Christian, While the Right only supports said "Christian" faiths(at least until they are the last church standing! Then they'll attack EACH OTHER!). Religion has NO PLACE in Government, yet right wing Hypocrites bash "faith based" Governments while attempting to subvert ours with their "faith"! And the left is no better, poo-pooing any scientific evidence of "intelligent design" because it might support belief in a Creator! Does that sound familiar to what the church did to Gallileo, and numerous others, when their science contradicted religion? Suppressing religious thought didn't work for the commies, and it won't work for us either! We need to figure out how to draw a sharper line in the sand between church and state! Republicans are the worst offenders when it comes to legislating from the pulpit, and they're such two faced folk! It's ok to let your child die from appendicitis because you wanted God to heal them, yet no one should be allowed to terminate an unwanted pregnancy? Especially offensive is their (Right) opposition to birth control and sex education! Anyway, we need to combat ignorance and superstition while keeping our minds open! Otherwise our country is doomed to failure!
RE: ...we need to combat ignorance and superstition while keeping our minds open!
Very true. First of all, niether Al Sharpton nor the Democrats represent the "left" (only in the skewed politics of the US mainstream -read corporate- media, do they). But if you think that they do, I can understand why you are "fed up". Regardless of what they say, liberals like Sharpton are status quo players, not the vehicles for change. If you have any interest in what is the real left, that is, the revolutionary left, look at the work of the revolutionary socialists (http://socialistworker.org/where-we-stand, http://www.isreview.org/index.shtml, http://www.wsws.org/) for a start.
You'll often see comments on CD like the "right/left divide represents a false dichotomy." This is true because there is no dichotomy! The GOP and the Democratic Party represent the same corporate interests. What we need is a REAL dichotomy, a real alternative, a non-capitalist alternative.
Thank you; you put that quite succinctly. I continually say to any who will listen that the Ds and Rs are two branches of the same tree.
Bottom line: Glenn Beck is the benign face of tomorrow's homegrown American fascism. There's a good reason why Keith Olbermann calls him "Lonesome Rhodes" - check out the Andy Griffith film "A Face in the Crowd" and see why. An equally apt comparison might be drawn from the last great recession - Father Coughlin. Underestimate Mr. Beck at your peril.
The film you mention is one of my favorite films, it is fantastic, and Andy Griffith's performance is one of the greatest performances in all of film, IMHO.
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
O'Bamba and Beckk - two pawns well-spent! Both to distract the people from the people's very own personal power to control market production and public policies! According to the people's own better interests! Please do not think about those things! Consider instead that "Gawd", that fantasy from the Torah franchise, will do your thinking for you!
Watching on C-Span, what really caught my eye was that not ONE well-dressed, peaceful listener comprising Beck's considerable audience carried a sign OF ANY KIND during his puerile performance!
Boy, can they follow orders!
Why these folks looked like some Unitarians I nonpray with at the Fellowship!
Do we ever need a THIRD PARTY to obliterate the duopoly! You betcha!
(Why does Prof. Jensen work above so hard trying to explain chameleon-like Beck, as perhaps someone posessing greater depth beyond that of a opportunistic dispenser of religious snake oil?
My focus now is actually fixed firmly on the moral bankruptcy of the party I used believe in as a "lesser of two evils voter.
The future of this country demands the creation of a newly muscular, antiwar, pro Green Jobs Third Party to terminally dismantle our two-headed, one party duopoly to its sordid foundations by 2012!
And who are some of the wise truthtellers who can help realize such a vision? For one there's Andrew Bacevich. Check out his new revelatory book,"Washington Rules." Add to that Chalmers Johnson and "Dismantling the Empire." Mix in some charismatic labor leaders with guts,sprinkle in cutting-edge, Environmentalists, leaven with George Soros and a few of his ilk. Would Russ Feingold pay attentionAnd Where is Cynthia McKinney? Well, you get my drift!
I think ubrew12 summed things up very succinctly below: "Its like some kind of nightmare Americans refuse to wake up from."
Indeed, for me, his statement perfectly characterizes the political system in this country.