Hardcore Conservative with Some Progressive Ideals

Elwood: "They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God."                                                                      (Blues Brothers 1980)

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Hardcore Conservative with Some Progressive Ideals

Truth—the No Spin Politically Incorrect Zone is the philosophical bedrock for my filmmaking, and for my cartoons blog, Rock's World.

This TRUTH includes an exploration of vital issues in our politics, news, entertainment, and culture.
My thesis is we need all our citizens involved in the national debate, both the left and right wings. I believe each is vital in a thriving democracy. Sometimes truth will lie with the left, other times with the right, and usually in a combination. This is not centrist, or moderate. It is hardcore truth.








Having said this, I often find myself on the conservative side of things. Even when I passionately support a progressive ideal, like Social Security benefits, I usually seek a conservative approach, such as voluntary privatization. I advocate means testing, raising the age requirements, and rigid cost-benefits analyses. In other words, I'm basically conservative, even when I promote a progressive ideal, and I want SMART.

As opposed to my far-right fellow conservatives, though, I do passionately believe in the social safety net, including humane unemployment insurance, universal healthcare (market-based), and reformed SSC, Medicare, and Medicaid.

See previous related posts, Towards an Activist Conservatism and Left Versus Right, Two Hulks Bursting with Anger.

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Invisible and Visible Hands

Adam Smith

I trust, with my compadres, in Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market, but I don't think it solves all of society's needs. The invisible hand is necessary for business and economic success, but it requires a visible hand too, that of a government actively seeking to solve the other problems, like homelessness. Albeit, with market-based solutions.

I also want active and enduring support for the arts, science, research, and infrastructure investments.

I promote reasonable financing for education, but also its release from the clutches of teachers’ unions, and from liberal, anti-American ideologies.

The History of Left vs. Right

I am surprised as I learn the history of our great nation that we repeatedly revisit the very same arguments our Founding Fathers had in the eighteenth century. There have always been liberals, and conservatives.

Present-day conservatives, and their radical right-wing proponents, like Bachmann, the Tea Party, and even Beck, proclaim conservatism as the guardian of our national history, and they promote a return to the values of our Founders.

Thomas Jefferson, States' Rights

John Hancock, Federalist

Well, I’ve got news for you, my fellow conservatives; the values of the Founding Fathers were exactly like ours. They were split between Federalist and States' Rights people, those that desired a republic and those who wanted pure democracy, and yes, between liberals and conservatives. It’s tiring to think we’ve made no progress since then. Or, is it? Maybe this kind of balance and tension is exactly what our republic needs.

What If the Hard Right Ruled?

Thinking of our own times, what if the hard right, which is now controlling the Republican Party, ruled absolutely?

Well, we’d have Texas. There’d be drastically reduced unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits. The military would still be fully funded. Taxes would be flat. We’d have no illegal immigration. There’d be an abundant energy supply. The air and water would be a bit more polluted.

Dallas Oil Refinery and Skyline

Unions would shrivel and no longer destroy our companies, and city and state governments. Teachers unions would stop emulsifying our children's minds in the interest of teacher benefits and anti-American liberal philosophy. Our history would be re-written again to make America the hero of the world. Students would be allowed to attend quality schools with a voucher system.

Our economy would rocket under these conditions. Small businesses would thrive and hire.

On the other hand, the unemployed, the poor, the mentally ill, many sick people, the elderly, education funding, science, research, and the arts would suffer. Millions of government workers would lose their jobs and flood the job market. The poor would be vilified. They would get enough food from charities to live, on the streets, and then be arrested for vagrancy. Some elderly would be at the mercy of relatives or charities. Mental health would be decimated, and we’d have even more Jared Loughner’s. Millions would have no health insurance, and continue to flood and bankrupt our public hospitals.

The Post Office and public transportation would no longer serve small towns. We’d never have high-speed rail. Our roads and bridges would crumble waiting for private enterprise to repair them. NASA would not exist, and we wouldn't have even gone to the moon. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program would be defunded, removing a vital investment tool for American manufacturing.

Regulation would be diminished so much that our food supply would be tainted.

We'd be in Afghanistan another thirty years.

We'd be dominated by religious dogma. Pornography would be banned.

The useless war on drugs would be expanded, and even more people would be in prison. Speaking of prisons, they'd be even more of a hellhole. Which means, yes, the incentive would increase not to offend, but jails would turn out a more determined class of uneducated criminals, who only know crime, to prey on us.

What if the Hardcore Left Ruled?

We’d have Los Angeles. There'd be humane unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits. We’d have lots of government jobs. The elderly would be okay. The poor could survive in dignity. The mentally ill and challenged would have programs and be off the streets.

Los Angeles Slum and Skyline

Science, research, and the arts would thrive.

The Post Office and public transportation would continue to serve small towns. We’d have high-speed rail. Our roads and bridges would be repaired. We’d revitalize our space program and other technological advancements. The SBIR program would help revive American manufacturing.

We’d advance our Green Technology, which would mean a socialistic choosing of winners, which would fail miserably and cost billions, but also lead to a few important advancements over the years. The air and water would be very clean.

The prison population would shrink with the end of the war on drugs. This would mean, however, flooding the job market, roads, and hospitals with addicted and inebriated citizens. Still, this would reduce the crime rate, and lower gang and organized crime involvement in the drug trade. Replacing these, though, would be the black market and gang involvement for cigarettes, and establishments where smoking would be surreptitiously allowed, kind of like speakeasies.

French fries and milkshakes would be outlawed.

Prisons would be run humanely, and would educate inmates so they’d at least have a chance on the outside, and stop robbing us.

The military would be denuded. We'd be out of Afghanistan and unlikely to get involved military again with boots on the ground.

Religion would be kept out of government. Pornography would be allowed.

Regulation would metastasize, so that we’d theoretically be a safer, cleaner society, and with no financial risks of world meltdown again. In reality, though, the regulations themselves would crush business, commerce, and the financial system.

There’d be an eternal energy shortage, as we’d be mired as we are now, forbidden to utilize our vast resources.

Unions would multiply and thrive, with unabashed cronyism and payoffs. “Stimulus” programs would funnel money to their leaders and some of their members. They’d be free again to destroy our manufacturing base, and city and state governments.

Taxes would skyrocket. Government would confiscate money from all successful individuals and corporations. The economy would tank, just like Los Angeles. We’d eventually suffer another Depression.

Everybody would have health insurance, but on a par with Cuba. There would be long lines, cues for treatment, and even death panels, though denied by present proponents.

Teachers unions would guarantee higher teacher wages and benefits, but also that children remain in low-quality schools. They’d continue to fill children’s minds with hatred for America and anything to do with business or success. They’d just about ensure that future presidents of the United States would go around apologizing for America.

We’d be flooded even more with illegal immigrants. English would be the second language of the land.

Conclusions

Perhaps you can tell I’d prefer that the hardcore right rule rather than the hardcore left. Control by the far right would lead to a Darwinian paradise, and the U.S. would conquer and thrive. Unless, of course, it wasted everything on Afghanistan-like, black-hole militarisms of ten-year wars.

Survival of the Fittest

Yet, I don’t want a Darwinian paradise. I am against the hardcore right’s inhumane treatment of the poor, the aged, and the arts. They’ve even shown they will oppose the advancement of science, higher education, investment in infrastructure, and wonderful programs like the SBIR. And I don’t want ten-year, black-hole wars.

I want a humane society. I love progressive ideals, like helping the poor. I just don’t like the left’s socialist and communist solutions to these ideals.

I want a Darwinian paradise for the economy, and for defense. But for other issues, like poverty, I want a Dickensian sensibility backed up with market-based or at least cost-effective solutions devised by conservatives, not by deep-pocket, dreamy eyed liberals.

Still, as I think I’ve demonstrated, we need liberals and conservatives.

Without both wings, our society would flounder.

Have a wonderful day!

Your Comments are Welcome Here

                                                                 Rock

My links are:
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Solving Intractable Problems in a Polarized Society

Snapshot of Our Present Political Landscape

 
At this time in our history, America is considered a


C
enter


R
ight



W

ing


country.

Tea Party in the House

Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, and Michele Bachmann’s Tea Party commands much power and attention, especially after 2010, when Republicans gained 68 seats and control of the House and added six Senate seats. Prognosticators believe Republicans are likely to win control of the Senate in 2012, and possibly regain the White House.

Our love of having the first black president in history has been overshadowed by our dissatisfaction with his job performance.

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Canaries in the Coal Mine

Our canaries, independents, continue to be center-right on most issues, and very unhappy with government spending and the Democrat and Obama’s handling of the economy. While Obama’s job approval rating is now 47% approve, 49% disapprove, an astonishing 51% of independents strongly disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy.

Democrat Glimmer of Hope

On the other hand, Democrats have found a glimmer of hope. Senator Paul Ryan’s "Roadmap" Medicare plan is unpopular with Americans, and the Republicans have signed on to it.

Senator Paul Ryan

Republican Representative Jane Corwin’s support of the Ryan plan led in part to her 2011 special election loss for the New York 26th congressional district House seat, long-held by Republicans. The loss was stunning in that Corwin was leading comfortably weeks before the election, until Democrat challenger, and now new congresswoman, Kathy Hochul, started to hammer Corwin for her support of the Medicare part of the Ryan Plan.

Democrats feel they’ve found a winning issue. Some of them are daring to dream of re-gaining the House, and perhaps retaining the Senate.

Third Rail

The fact is, Medicare, like Social Security, is a third rail for politicians. It’s hot and deadly. Independents, Democrats, and even Republicans like their Medicare, and don’t want anyone messin’ around with it.

Medicare

Medicare illustrates my central thesis of this post. Medicare was created in 1965 by The Great Society’s Lyndon Johnson. Eighty percent of Medicare is a government run program, and the rest is handled in various ways privately. Of course, it is highly regulated.

Personally, as a conservative, I don’t mind this percentage of government and private control for a healthcare program, as it seems to work reasonably well. Except, of course, that as we all age, the program will go bankrupt.

So, it must be reformed.

How to Reform Medicare

My conservative reforms would include means testing, raising the age requirements, and so on. Liberal “reforms” would include raising taxes on “the rich” and business to pay for increasing costs.

In my opinion, my solution would help the economy. The liberal reforms would further impoverish the country.

But, all this doesn’t matter. Nobody wants my kind of reforms, and the hard right will not accept the liberal reforms.

Obstacles to Medicare Reform

Liberals Hate the Rich, and Business

If liberals could just accept raising taxes a bit on “the rich” and let business off the hook, I could have more sympathy for their Medicare plans. But, they won’t. They hate the rich and business, and will never rest until America is a country with equal wages for all.

Every person would take their hard-won daily fifty cents and buy a loaf of government bread and a stick of butter, then go to their glorious healthcare shack to wait in line for their cancer cure by their top-notch medical team, Larry, Curly, and Moe, and salute the next leader like any good communist Cuban.

The Three Stooges: Larry, Nurse, Curly, Moe

Even Castro has admitted that his socialism did not work for his people, but our leftists still worship him as the ideal, another tyrant who uses guns to seize property from the “evil rich” and business.

The Hard-Right Hates Big Government, and Loves Survival-of-the-Fittest

My problem with the right is the opposite. According to their present world view, anything that smacks of being a government program is automatically an evil thing.

I’ve got news for them. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are all big government programs. As well as the Department of Defense, SBIR programs, research grants, you name it. All these have worked relatively well. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security have served us as a nation, but will now have problems due to the coming population bulge of the elderly. So, again, they must be reformed.

The radical hardcore right will take me up on this challenge, and say “You’re darn right. But don’t reform them. Get rid of them.

Scrooge

We don’t need ‘em.” (As Scrooge said, “Are there no workhouses?") Let’s just abolish these big government entitlements, and go to a pure survival of the fittest.

That’s why I can never be a Libertarian, and don’t endorse Libertarians Ron Paul, Rand Paul, or even Larry Elder (an otherwise wonderful and wise man), anymore than I can approve of socialists Dennis Kucinich or Bernie Sanders.

In a Nutshell

The far left wants to steal every gulden from the “rich," and from “evil business,” reducing us all to grubs and turnip roots; and the far right actually does want to toss Grandma out into the street, and off a cliff. These are not exaggerations.

Eighty percent of Americans like their Medicare, the way it is. Regardless of which party, regardless of any hard-coriness.

It has worked. Part big government, and part private enterprise, it crosses the hard-core lines.

Can it be fixed?

Only if folks give up their irrationalities.

Have a wonderful day!

Your Comments are Welcome Here

                                                                 Rock

My links are:
Rock's World (#cartoons)
Truth—the No Spin Politically Incorrect Zone
@RockyII Twitter
Rock It Productions (Website)
Rock It Productions Facebook
RockyII2 Personal Facebook

You can contact me at:
Rock's Email

To copy these, here they are:
Rock's World (#cartoons)           http://rockyiisworld.blogspot.com/
Truth--the No Spin Blog            http://truthrock.blogspot.com/
@RockyII Twitter                      http://twitter.com/RockyII
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A Review of Political Talk Show Hosts

I’m going to briefly review some of the popular political talk show hosts in America. I divide them into

R
ed Meat Radicals with Charm


Red Meat Screaming Radicals with No Charm, Cheerleaders Blinded by Agenda, His Agenda is Himself, Rational But with a Clear Agenda, and The Great Communicator.

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I Listen to Them All

I consider it my duty, and that of all Americans, to consider both the left and the right. We have two parties for a reason. Each is correct. Each is wrong. Choosing sides is natural, and okay. Making decisions based solely on purist thinking is not a good thing. The world is complex.

Red Meat Radicals With Charm

Rachel Maddow, Glenn Beck

The first two of these political talk show hosts are vision-impaired by their views of the world. They ignore facts that don’t support them, and seek only evidence that proves they’re right. They demonize their opponents.

Rachel Maddow

They are also, however, charming, entertaining, and sometimes funny.

Both are demagogues. Maddow is pedestrian and common. Beck though, approaches mythic proportions, because he has the huge ideas, some of which work, like the Restoring Honor rally on the Washington Mall. Both are good for the nation, and bad for the nation.

Glenn Beck

Both often get their facts right, with good research. Beck is the finest researcher in American politics. Both, however, misinterpret the facts they find with their top-notch research, Maddow blinded by progressivism, and Beck by his conspiratorial paranoia.
Should we listen to them? Yes, but not on a daily basis. It’s worth checking in to see what they’ve uncovered. You won’t find what they broadcast anywhere else on the media. But, it’s not a good idea to get sucked into their visions of the world, which are dark and warped versions of the truth.

One small note on Beck

See my previous Truth articles on him, Beck, Palin, and the Tea Party and The Fall of Glenn Beck, in which I explain more of how I feel about him. I just saw one of his shows two days ago, and it was wonderful. He was concerned about what liberals are doing to our kids through the education system. He was spot on, but this time without his usual end of times foreboding. He was actually working with parents and educators on how to fix the situation.

This is the persona he ought to keep forever, instead of the Huey Long firebrand warning everyone to avoid stocks and buy gold and food insurance. I have little hope for this, however. Beck seems to be getting more religious and end of times, more radical, and more Huey Longish with every passing day.

Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin

Ann Coulter

Coulter is charming, funny, outrageous, and often correct. I find her more grounded than Maddow or Beck. She is outrageous, and says truths that pinpoint exactly who liberals are today. She’s not a demagogue, as she comes close to the truth always, and is entirely sincere. She doesn’t say anything to gain an audience. Is she ever wrong? Yes, as when she opposes unemployment insurance extensions.

Michelle Malkin

Malkin is similar to Coulter in every way. Both are attractive, intelligent, and rigid.

Should we listen to them? Yes. All the time, even if we disagree with them. They are brilliant, funny, charming, entertaining, and all their views touch truth.

Red Meat Radical Screamers with No Charm

Keith Olbermann, Michael Savage, Mark Levin

Keith Olbermann

All three are the screamers, and none of them have any charm. They are unpleasant, hate-filled, and dogmatic. Olbermann is on the far left, and Savage and Levin on the far right.

Michael Savage

Mark Levin

Should we listen to them? Yeah. Force yourself once in awhile to hear them. They do speak truth often, but go so far that they exclude truth from the rest of the spectrum. And, they hate.

Cheerleaders Blinded by Agenda

Ed Schultz, Lawrence O’Donnell

Ed Schultz

Lawrence O'Donnell

I find Schultz and O’Donnell insufferable. But the left love them.

They are also guys who hate, but they at least don’t scream all the time. They are totally blinded by their leftist agenda.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity

Rush Limbaugh

Limbaugh is the king of talk radio. He is a genius. He is the one who converted me to conservatism. A great and good man. Rush is funny too, and irreverent. But, he is totally blinded by his agenda. Obama is always wrong, and conservatives are always right. I do buy his vision for a conservative America, but I don’t subscribe to his complete rejection of things like unemployment insurance and the social safety net. He goes way too far.

Ditto with Sean Hannity. They are both charming. One of the things I dislike about Sean and Rush is that I can predict every word out of their mouths. They believe the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith will solve all the world’s problems, and that isn’t true. It’s partly true. Lower taxes and charity will help the poor. But charity will not pay the rent for people who are unemployed. They go too far, and are blinded by agenda.

Should we listen to them? Yes, frequently. They are two of the best spokespersons for their point of view. And, they are often correct. Just don’t join their religion, which is pure Darwinian conservatism.

His Agenda is Himself

Dylan Ratigan

I’ve followed Dylan Ratigan for years. He used to be the host of Fast Money. He’s always been a know it all who used to sound conservative when he was among the investment crowd, but has converted to hardcore liberalism now that he has his own show on radically liberal MSNBC. How anyone who knows business can be liberal I can’t imagine.

Should we listen to him? Yeah. He’s bright. He’s got good guests. You can learn some things from him. Just don’t make him your American Idol.

Rational But with a Clear Agenda

Chris Matthews, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved, and Larry Elder

With Matthews on the left, and Prager, Medved, and Elder on the hard but cogent right, all are principled representatives of their viewpoints. All are rational, except for Matthews 40% of the time.

Chris Matthews

Why do I include Matthews then in the rational crowd? Because he can certainly be reasonable, and will surprise you often with his fair opinions. It’s just when he gets off into calling Tea Partiers racists, or saying that it is his job to ensure Obama succeeds that I want to throw rocks at the TV.

Dennis Prager

Prager and Medved are two of the most reasoned talk show hosts in America. I don’t agree with them on some issues, like unemployment insurance, but I do share many of their other views.

Michael Medved

Larry, a black conservative, I absolutely love, and especially that he is charming, funny, fair, and rational. However, he is a Libertarian, and I disagree with this party on many issues. Again, unemployment insurance, and others.

Larry Elder

Should we listen to all these? Absolutely, often. You will learn a great deal, and feel good about humanity.

The Great Communicator

Joe Scarborough is the only honest political talk show host who is able to enter into the worlds of both the left and right, while maintaining a basically consistent personal philosophy. He is far from the late William F. Buckley in intelligence, and even much below Prager and Medved, but he’s fairly smart.

He is a conservative, but is named a RINO by the hard right. For example, he will often bash conservatives for calling Obama a socialist, and so on. So, he thinks being honest is cruel, and politically suicidal.

Joe Scarborough

Obama is a socialist. There, I’ve said it.

Still, of all the talk show hosts, Scarborough can actually understand the need for both the left and the right, which is my position, and which is essential in a functioning America. Too bad we’re a minority in holding that view.

The Battle Goes On

Republicans won the last election for a reason. And, Obama is none too popular now that people have gotten to know his radical leftism and Chicago style politics.

Still, rational progressives do have a point against this Republican House, and especially the new members of congress. They are cruel proponents of survival of the fittest, when they could settle for just being fiscally rational. It’s an old argument that began even as far back as the election of 1800, when Federalist John Adams ran against states’ rights Jefferson. Progressives versus the Tea Party.

Listen to all the talk show hosts. Just know whom it is you’re listening to, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Your Comments are Welcome Here

Rock

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The Fall of Glenn Beck

The karmic trajectory of Glenn Beck's life ought to be an

A
llegory



for the Republican Party, the Tea Party, and America. We’ll get into this in the conclusion.

The Daily Beast: America’s Ten Worst Demagogues.

Who is Glenn Beck?

Glenn Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American conservative radio and television host, author, entrepreneur, and political commentator. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks; and also a cable news show on the Fox News Channel.

Beck has authored six New York Times-bestselling books. He is the founder and CEO of Mercury Radio Arts, a multimedia production company through which he produces content for radio, television, publishing, the stage, and the Internet.

                                                                                Wikepedia

Mr. Beck has been both an effective communicator who has caused real-world results, and a controversial one who has made many enemies.

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How Others See the Glenn Beck “Transitioning”

New York Times David Carr

Mr. Beck, a conservative Jeremiah and talk-radio phenomenon, burst into television prominence in 2009 by taking the forsaken 5 p.m. slot on Fox News and turning it into a juggernaut.

A conjurer of conspiracies who spotted sedition everywhere he looked, Mr. Beck struck a big chord and ended up on the cover of Time magazine

and The New York Times Magazine, and held rallies all over the country that were mobbed with acolytes. He achieved unheard-of ratings, swamped the competition and at times seemed to threaten the dominion of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity at Fox.

But a funny thing happened on the way from the revolution. Since last August, when he summoned more than 100,000 followers to the Washington mall for the “Restoring Honor” rally, Mr. Beck has lost over a third of his audience on Fox — a greater percentage drop than other hosts at Fox. True, he fell from the great heights of the health care debate in January 2010, but there has been worrisome erosion — more than one million viewers — especially in the younger demographic.

He still has numbers that just about any cable news host would envy and, with about two million viewers a night, outdraws all his competition combined. But the erosion is significant enough that Fox News officials are willing to say — anonymously, of course; they don’t want to be identified as criticizing the talent — that they are looking at the end of his contract in December and contemplating life without Mr. Beck.

David Carr also said, “The problem with “Glenn Beck” is that it has turned into a serial doomsday machine that’s a bummer to watch.”

“He used to be a lot funnier,” said David Von Drehle, who wrote an article in Time magazine.

He was the befuddled everyman and something entirely new, but the longer people have listened to his ranting and raving, the wearier they become. Now you are just getting down to diehards. I mean, how many people were in the Waco compound at the end? A couple of hundred?

Why Fox Dumped Beck

The ratings for the first quarter of 2011 revealed Beck's show had lost close to a third of its audience compared with the same stretch a year ago, when his viewership peaked at 2.78 million. Among advertiser-prized viewers ages 25 to 54, he was down almost 40 percent, and advertisers increasingly were shunning him.

Beck, and Fox for Beck’s time slot, has lost more than 300 advertisers. Below is a compilation of some of these.

Companies Boycotting Beck

Both Liberals and Conservatives Are Happy About the Move

Liberals are gleeful that a far right-wing guy is going down. Conservatives see Beck as giving conservatism, and Fox News, a bad name.

Bill Kristol

Neoconservative columnist Bill Kristol in The Weekly Standard, Feb 14, 2011

Hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. Hejavascript:void(0)’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.

Kristol's words drew an approving nod from National Review’s Rich Lowry, a rare public repudiation of the influential Fox host from a conservative elite that quietly dislikes him.

From calling President Obama racist, then taking back the statement, to the consistent use of Nazi and Holocaust imagery, Beck was upsetting more than just Jewish groups.

Not an American Tragedy

Of course, the “fall” of Glenn Beck isn’t really an American tragedy, as he will have other projects, many of them lucrative. He has sold four million books, has high talk-radio ratings, a successful Web site, The Blaze, and a stage performance that packs ‘em in. His company, Mercury Radio Arts, had more than $30 million in revenue last year.

Beck’s fall is sort of comparable to the “fall” of Katie Couric, who was forced out of the first mainstream media news anchor job for a female over at CBS. She too, will have much power and moneymaking opportunities, so no one should feel sorry for her.

Still, both of them have “fallen.”

The Most Positive Man in America

Of course, I was never entirely happy with Beck. I even thought his Restoring Honor, the best thing he ever did, was a religious revival, when I was expecting something politically uplifting. Still, it’s a free country, and Beck made that choice. It was because of that chosen path, in fact, I think, that he was so popular at that time. He seemed like the most optimistic man in America.

See my earlier post on Beck, when I was more upbeat about him, Beck, Palin, and the Tea Party.

Beck and Palin at Restoring Honor

No more.

My feelings about Beck used to be about 90% positive and 10% negative. My judgment of him has moved from that to about 10% positive now and 90% negative. I even feel he has slid into unethical behaviors.

Let me start with my positive feelings about Beck.

The Good

Beck took the world by storm when the Glenn Beck TV program opened on the Fox News Channel on Jan 19, 2009. It reached the height of its all-time ratings in March of that year, 3,074,000 million viewers, outpacing the total of all his timeslot competitors combined. He was second on Cable News only to Bill O’Reilly, who beat him by only 81,000 viewers. He became a favorite guest on “The O’Reilly Factor,” where Bill’s affection for him was obvious. Fox was proud of him.

He was the king of moneymaking, with books on the New York Times bestsellers lists and projects that always worked.

The pinnacle of his success was the Restoring Honor rally on the steps of the the Lincoln Memorial, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. He was beloved by millions, and still is.

That Chalkboard

Beck and His Famous Chalkboard

At first, his chalkboard lectures were wondrous, instructive, and useful. He did reveal things that no one in America was talking about. He was very helpful to our nation in pointing out Barrack Obama’s radical, leftist associations. He helped demystify the "Annointed One" mystique about Obama and cut him down to size as a political hack with Chicago thug tactics. All this was in part responsible for both Obama’s lowered ratings and the rise of the Tea Party, who were much in alignment with Glenn Beck’s value system.

Research Par Excellence

He was, and remains, the best researcher in the media. Too bad the mainstream media don’t do this much homework. Beck is infamous for finding 99 degrees of separation. If Barrack Obama had coffee one day with Bill Ayers’s cousin, Beck would find it. Thus, he was able to uncover that indeed Barrack has mostly associated his whole life with radical left-wingers, and made statements on the record affirming his socialist tendencies. We wouldn’t have known all this in the slightest without Beck.

Thank You, Glenn

Like him or not, Glenn has trumpeted several wonderful things. He has sought to elevate family values, religion, patriotism, a return to conservatism, and honoring both America and the “common man.”

He took down radical socialist Van Jones from the Obama Administration, and removed the unethical, criminal, and election frauding Obama ally ACORN from their nefarious activities, among others.

He has also uncovered the associations between far left organizations like Media Matters, and other left-wing sites like The Huffington Post, and unsavory characters like George Soros. Or, as Glenn Beck calls him, “Spooky Dude.”

Modern Liberals

John F. Kennedy

I have long felt that modern liberals have left their dignified roots as exhibited, in my opinion, by FDR, Truman, JFK, Lyndon Johnson, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. While conservatives might not agree with the policies of these liberal giants, they were decent men, not demagogues, and with America’s interest in mind. Plus, they were sensible. All of them were strong on defense, and pro business.

All this is a far cry from today’s liberals, who have morphed into vicious demagogues without conscience, like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Obama himself more resembles Pelosi and Reid than any of the liberal giants of the past, let alone Abraham Lincoln.

Spot On

Beck was able to paint modern liberals exactly as they are. He showed us their socialist and even communist connections and sentiments. He, along with the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and others, helped conservatives win a majority in the House of Representatives and take back some of the Senate. This started with the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts to Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat. An astounding achievement.

And Much More

Beck is also a great entertainer. He started as a DJ, can play characters, complete with a great voice and clowning around.

The Bad

I was among the first conservatives on the Web and on Twitter to start criticizing Beck. I had some arguments with his devotees, and lost some followers myself because of my critiques. I gained some followers too.

At first, my complaints about him were that he was constantly finding conspiracies. He was paranoid, full of doom and gloom, and always afraid, communicating that fear to all of America.

Beck is Accurate, But ...

I never took issue with Beck on what he discovered with his impeccable research. For example, yes there are conspiracies going on all over the world right this very moment. Beck has found several of them. Islamic radicals do want a worldwide caliphate. Unions are connected with communist radicals. Some communist radicals are associated with some radical Islamofascists. Obama has had lifelong associations with domestic terrorists, socialists, and even communists.

Faulty Analysis

What I dispute are Beck’s interpretations of what he finds, and their implications. What he ignores is that there always have been, and always will be conspiracies, people who hate America, those who are plotting America’s downfall, and so on. This began with the Revolutionary War, and will continue as long as America exists.

Reason to Tremble?

Finding conspiracies doesn’t mean that any of these will succeed. It even doesn’t follow that any of them are worth worrying about. We can thank Glenn Beck for making us aware of some of these actual plots. Knowing they exist can afford us the chance to prepare, and to prevent their fruition. But we can curse him for making us afraid. An afraid America creates Depressions, isolationism, hatreds, more fears, and self-destructive behaviors.

Valid Fears and an Open Mind

Some of his fears are valid. Obama does seem to be solely educated by leftist radical family, friends, associates, and schooling. As such, he probably does have a bias against business, a negative view of America, an anti-military feeling, and so on. These are real.

Even here, though, Beck ignores the fact that Obama can learn. Perhaps he’ll never be a centrist, but he has accepted being forced to the middle in his policies. So much so that he now has problems with his radical left base. Remember, Reagan was a fervent Democrat before he became the darling of the conservatives.

The Ugly

Beck has not only flirted with unethical behavior, he eventually became mired in it.

He was locked in to a dark vision of the world, the end times, and the ruination of the United States, its currency, and economy. His main message became, prepare for the coming apocalypse.

While he was actually preaching that money would become useless soon, he was scrambling to increase his earned millions. He would advise listeners to take their money out of the stock market, all the while it was going up. At the same time he was running down America, in a distinctly un-conservative, un-Reagonesque manner, he was peddling everything you need for the catastrophes to come. Gold, food insurance, disaster supplies.

Glenn Peddling Food Insurance

Locked in to his dark view of the world, he was profiting from it. So, he had to outdo himself every day in coming up with something new about which to be afraid.


This is all unethical, and immoral.

The Moral of the Story

Lessons for Beck

For my personal taste, Beck became too religious, too apocalyptic, too much doom and gloom, too opportunistic in peddling disaster products while preaching the end of times, too paranoid, and too empowering of those who really are involved in conspiracies. He is not a conservative, in my view, because conservatives are happy, love their country, and root for it to succeed.

All Beck had to do to keep his kingdom was to shift gears into the persona of a winner. Instead, he reverted to the raving maniac of his alcoholic years. He ends his Fox career, the highest

Huey Long

peak he will ever reach, much like Joe McCarthy, Huey Long, and other demagogues, who stayed locked in their negative paranoia’s.

He has become the political equivalent, in my opinion, of Art Bell’s Coast to Coast, UFO watchers, the John Birch Society, and all the conspiracy theorists who believe such things as Lee Harvey Oswald did not kill John F. Kennedy.

UFO?

Lessons for the Rest of Us

The lesson for Republicans, and for the Tea Party, is that Americans might passionately love you today because you have a clear heartfelt message that seems to lead to the Promised Land. But, they expect you to stay reasonable. Beck left the reservation.

Republicans and the Tea Party are misreading their election mandate, and are becoming irrational. Americans did not want them to dismantle the social safety net, support for the arts, and for NPR. They just wanted reasonable spending. Eventually, most Americans will reject radical solutions to our very real problems.

God Bless You Glenn

The Young Beck

You will succeed in other ways, I’m sure. Take care of yourself. We loved you. We wish you well.


Stay away from booze. And, avoid reading the Book of Revelations.

Your Comments are Welcome Here

                                                      Rock

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