A Glenn Beck Conundrum

George Rebane

Let me fess up right from the start, so you know from where I come.  We are fans of Glenn Beck on Fox News, and enjoy his hyperventilated tirades and graphically illustrated exposés of the considerable hanky-panky in Washington that passes for government.  But you probably knew that.

Glenn’s obviously conservative and libertarian screeds have been directed lately at what he identifies as “corruption” at all levels of government starting with Congress and the Administration.  Now, ferreting out corruption in government is a noble yet pretty vanilla undertaking on the American scene.  Nobody will much yell at you for taking that tack, except, of course, those at whom you point your pesky flashlight and catch up to their armpits in the cookie jar.

But for some reason, Beck doesn’t always draw the stark and obvious conclusions from his investigations, he doesn’t always speak with the courage with which he exhorts us to speak out.  In the arena where he plays every afternoon, accusations of ‘corruption’ are usually assigned to the puff-ball corner.  To me it seems that Beck, more often than not, confuses implementation of a clearly declared and radical socio-political ideology with something that can be lifted from the police blotter of any big city.  And then he gives you a hint that his latest revelation may be bigger than that, but quickly backs off and leaves you to connect the remaining dots.

In covering the proudly adopted and openly acknowledged Marxist redistribution and control policies of this Administration and Congress, he often short-circuits himself by concluding that all this is due to ‘corruption’.  Well yes; what the Rangles, Dodds, Stevens, and their ilk do to feather their personal nests is good old fashioned American corruption.  But what ACORN, Apollo Group, SEIU, and Obama’s hand-picked czars are doing today should not be viewed as corruption commonly understood.

If you study the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, you quickly find that subverting the entire spectrum of a target society’s criminal and civil codes, in order to destabilize and finally overturn it, is part and parcel of the well-known game plan.  As Uncle Joe clarified a long time ago, “to make an (autocratic/totalitarian socialist) omelet, you have to break a few eggs.”  But if you focus your attention and energies on the breaking of eggs, and take your eye off the intended omelet, then you wind up with the mixed and mushy messages that Glenn Beck often delivers.

For international socialists, we have to understand that the end justifies their means – not just some select means, but all means required to achieve the goal.  They make no secret of it; never have.  So to learn that they are using corruption should not be the end-all, back-patting discovery that gets announced day after day.  And confabulating the corruption of an ACORN or SEIU with that of Charlie Rangel’s escapades weakens – nay, obscures – the critical revelation of what Obama’s promised “transformational change” really means.

By calling the west’s response a ‘war on terror’, this kind of fog bank has already descended at great cost over the reignited clash of civilizations.  What is (should be?) happening worldwide is no more a ‘war on terror’ than WW2 was a ‘war on the mechanized division’ invented by Hitler’s Wehrmacht.  As is terror, so was the mechanized division a tool, a means, for tyranny in its assault on western civilization.  Most students of history recognized even before 9/11 that assigning such acts of ‘terror’ to the police blotter would not allow us to respond effectively to the real threat of international Islamic-fascism.

So Glenn Beck, along with his media soul mates, should stop the soft-pedaling, mixed-message meanderings.  In public and up front, Obama told us what his intentions are.  If today’s conservative pundits believe that we are being openly led toward the next version of a worldwide workers’ paradise, then they should say so, plain and simple.  Don’t confuse the real message with same-breath reports of scumbag politicians cheating on their taxes.

A final nit on Glenn Beck is his recent attempt to resolve which amendment in the Bill of Rights was the most important.  The quest quickly reduced to the First or Second Amendments.  Glenn puzzled on it for a while and then concluded that it had to be the First which guarantees our freedom of speech.  Wrong.  The First Amendment and the whole shebang depend on survival of the Second.  We should always remember that the pen is mighty only to the extent that it can invoke the sword. 

No would-be autocrat has ever achieved his goal without having first disarmed the people.  And in that same vein, freedom of speech survives only to the extent that people can maintain their ability (spontaneously, collectively, and severally) to bear arms.  Crack a history book, look at the disarmed EU countries, or just witness the lock-step salami tactic used today by collectivists to erode our own First and Second Amendment rights.  

Shape up and soldier on Glenn, we need you.

Comments

[Mikey McD]

Our country is fighting between socialism/slavery and capitalism/liberty.

"Government officials are corrupt" is a sidebar at best, not a chorus line.

[Steve Enos]

Beck is an "entertainer", he performs. And here was he when Bush was in office? What was he saying when Bush was in office for 8 years?

[Russ Steele]

Steve,

Glenn Beck was on CNN for two years starting in 2006. By 2008 he had grown is audience by 200%. In the Fall of 2008 he signed a contract to join Fox News in the spring of 2009. I listened to Glenn Beck when Bush was in office once in a while, but CNN was not my favorite news sources. Glenn didn't always agree with Bush, but he did not display the passion he exerts on Fox now. One reason for leaving CNN was he was constrained by CNN's political correctness policies. When he cut a deal with Fox, his production company was given control over the program content. Beck's audience is growing and he will soon become the most watched show on Fox News. Beck admits to changing his mind on Bush policies, once the results were clear. Increasing the deficit through government spending has not produced the promised jobs, or jump start the economy. Today on Fox he trashes both Republicans and Democrats. If you watched the program you would know that. If you just read the lefty political blogs you are not getting the real Glenn Beck.

[Steve Enos]

Russ, I've watched Beck's show and still do from time to time. If CNN was a lib media outlet, thus Bush haters when Bush was in office, would they want Beck to bash Bush as much as possible back then? Did a lib media station keep Beck from bashing Bush back then, is that the "story" as to why Beck didn't bash Bush while at CNN?

Sorry, can't buy that one. Beck, like Rush is all about entertainment for money, ratings and more money, performance art entertaiment for the right side masses.

[Steve Enos]

OOOPS... I did it again! I used "Russ" by mistake. Really an honest mistake Georege, sorry. I do get confused a bit moving between the two blogs. My lib brain has a hard time keeping track sometimes.

Side note... was nice for you to go with Russ to APPLE in Nevada City. Thanks for taking the time and the effort, it was a good thing to do and you two get points for that.