Sunday, August 29, 2010

He’s a little bit snake oil

Beck douche He's a little bit charlatan. (Sung to the tune of the theme song of his fellow Mormons, Donnie and Marie.)

Okay, here's the deal. Glenn Beck decided to have a rally in Washington, D.C., one that would honor the troops (right, because so many of us despise them), and one that was supposed to somehow restore integrity to America. It was initially planned for sometime in September, but that date on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial was already taken, so they rescheduled to August 28th. It just so happens that that is the date of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech. Beck claims it was a little ol' coinkydink, it was never intended to take attention away from King's speech, blahbitty blah blay blue. Whatever. If you believe that, you're just silly. He later said that he came to see it as "divine providence," and went on to say some stuff about the civil rights movement, which I'll write a little more about in a moment.

Beck himself spoke, and so did Sarah Palin, as the mother of a soldier. Another "standout" speaker was Chuck Norris. Wow, bringing out the heavy hitters! (Or at least the heavy roundhouse kickers.) Beck stayed true to his claims that this was not going to be a political rally, I'll give him that, and there was little to no mention of our current administration or politics in general. However, there was a whole lot of churchin' going on. Man, from what I've seen and read, this was one big tent revival. Beck has been hitting the "divine plan" stuff hard lately, and seems to have developed the delusion that God is speaking to him and has a plan for him, and from what I can gather, it seems to involve buying up as much gold as possible from the company he's shilling for (which is currently under investigation).

At the rally today, Beck said, "Something that is beyond man is happening. America today begins to turn back to God."

Uhhh...no. 16% of people claim no religious affiliation, and the number is growing, not shrinking. I have no problem with anyone believing what they want to believe, just as long as they keep it out of my government. I don't want my legislators going to an ancient collection of texts for their inspiration and guidance. I want them going to college, law school, maybe medical school, learning about our Constitution and its laws. I don't understand Beck's recent embrace of this highly religious rhetoric, although I'm guessing he's just playing to what his followers seem to want to hear, which is what a snake oil salesman does. I wonder if they understand that he's a Mormon? I'm pretty sure that most evangelicals are not down with Mormonism. They certainly didn't seem to dig Mitt Romney all that much, although there were probably more factors at play there. But I digress.

One thing I noticed is that Beck said this rally was to bring back integrity, truth, and honor to our country. What? You have to have a rally to do that? You mean to tell me that you're so lost that you need someone like Beck to tell you that you need to get back to integrity, truth, and honor? If he was talking to certain corrupt politicians, sure, they need to get back to those things, too. But I doubt that they were inspired by your little rally, Glenn. In fact, I'd be surprised if they listened to much of it at all.

I also had to laugh about the remarks of one attendee who a reporter spoke to. She said, "I believe in our Constitution--and this administration doesn't." Spare me. Typical teabagger talking points. They blurt out "Constitution" about every third word. Lady, I believe in our Constitution. I want to protect it; you and your ilk want to get rid of decades-old Amendments. I want to preserve what is written there when it comes to separation of church and state; you want to pervert it. Don't you tell me I don't believe in my Constitution, and it IS mine, every bit as much as yours. And to believe that this administration doesn't believe in the Constitution is beyond retarded. Just a simple example: our President--and yes, he is your President, too, like it or not!--is a Constitutional lawyer. I think he believes pretty strongly in our Constitution, and probably understands it a whole fuck of a lot better than you do.

Now to the civil rights stuff. Oh Glenn. I think you really stepped in it this time.

First of all, I recognized this group's right to assemble there. I thought it was in rather poor taste, but I understood their right to do it. Gee, does that remind you of anything in the news lately? I found it interesting that the people telling the builders of the Islamic community center in Manhattan to "give up their rights" and move it elsewhere because it was in poor taste had no intention of moving their rally to another day when they were told that many believed it to be in poor taste. I thought Beck's calculated move to hold it on that day in that place was beyond tacky...but in the interest of consistency and constitutionality, I recognize that they had the right to do it.

However, Beck's remarks leading up to this rally grew increasingly bizarre when it came to the civil rights movement. At one point, he said that he wouldn't be surprised if:

...in our lifetime dogs and fire hoses are released or opened on us. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of us get a billy club to the head. I wouldn't be surprised if some of us go to jail--just like Martin Luther King did--on trumped-up charges. Tough times are coming.

Read all of Beck’s remarks on the civil rights movement. They are astonishing.

He said that it was time for him and his followers to "reclaim the civil rights movement," because after all, "we were the people that did it in the first place!”

Wait. What?

I was born in 1962, and I don't remember a thing about the civil rights movement. I was two years old when the Civil Rights Act was passed. I don't remember JFK, RFK, or MLK being assassinated, and I don't remember racial tension or riots. Anything I know about it, I learned through reading and talking to others.

Beck was born in 1964. So what is this "we" you speak of, Kemosabe?

He has shown numerous instances throughout his career in which he exhibited racist behavior, including the most recent one in which he mimicked one of the President's daughters and questioned her intelligence. He called the President a racist, with a "deep-seated hatred of white people," although he later backed off of that a bit. Listen to Beck's reaction when Joe Madison, a radio host, took him to task on his remarks.

And this is the guy who wants to "reclaim the civil rights movement."

MLK speech Let's get something straight, you rabblerousing, treasonous bastard: you don't have any more claim to the civil rights movement than this lily white child of the sixties does. I can admire what people like Dr. King did, and mourn for him and others because they lost their lives in an effort to make things better for ALL Americans. I can read with amazement of the courage of Rosa Parks as she finally had enough and peacefully and calmly took that seat at the FRONT of the bus. I can see with shock the pictures of little girls running a gauntlet of hatred, derision, and venom as they walk to school, and I gaze with horror upon the pictures of black men hung from trees for the crime of looking at a white woman. I read of the beatings and torture endured by those who were on the front lines--and it WAS a war, make no mistake about it--and I am ashamed that my country did such things to its own citizens. Ashamed.

But I would never, NEVER claim the civil rights movement as my own. It is part of our history as a country, it is part of my history, and I can admire the courage and fortitude of those who endured such treatment in the name of equality and justice for all. But I have never been subjected to such horrific treatment, whether for the color of my skin or for anything else, and most importantly...NEITHER HAVE YOU.

So get off your bizarre little carousel ride of "I'm just like you and it's MY civil rights movement, too!", put on your big boy magic underwear, and just shut the fuck up already.

17 comments:

  1. Great Post.

    Glenn Beck is a black face, without the black shoe polish. He is an opportunistic that has no problem appropriating others political history to accommodate his own political arena. However when you look at his records, he has shown nothing but contempt for the struggles of the African American community and their experiences. How come it is so easy for him to use Civil Rights experience to engulfed in the worst cultural war that this nation is facing, and never once he has spoken on behave of the millions of African Americans that today are still left behind with out access to full equality? How come if he claims that he shares the history of oppression with the black community, he is so opponent to the First African American president? That instead of he cheering for Obama, he has done the contrary, anything and everything to lynch Obama’s presidency.
    Sorry I need it to bent.

    Happy Birthday and keep them coming.

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  2. Happy Birthday, Beth. This make what, your 29th (I have conveniently forgotten certain information in your post!!).

    Snake oil salesman. Seems that on the conservative side, there are plenty of fakirs and frauds who purposely twist and misrepresent themselves. The reason being one that I find quite similiar to raps stars whose songs contains negative lyrics. Not to digress, but even if the motivation was once filled with nobility, the prime purpose of the messages have changed to be one of perpetuating one's self-interest.

    NO! I did not know that Glen Beck is a Mormon!! That IS a game changer, in my mind. I do not think that many folks would feel as connected to him, particularly his evangelistic followers. His invocation of God is undermined when you take Mormonism into consideration. After all, 'good ol' Christians' are sticklers for things like that, logic be darned.

    This was a very good and for me, informative post. Enjoy your birthday!!

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  3. Happy Birthday!

    This whole incident made me sick to my stomache. Bringing God back to America? Whatever happened to freedom of religion, the right not to believe in God. Did that go out the window when Glen Beck embraced the civil rights movement?

    Ugh! And of course Palin was there grandstanding. Amazing she couldn't finish her term as Gov. of Alaska, but seems to find time to make sure her name doesn't fade from the press. (Hugs)Indigo

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  4. so beck is getting transmissions from the angel macaroni now? he's a yankee doodle mormon!

    i see him and palin as the harbingers of darkness. nothing they say can be trusted.

    xxalainaxx

    ps happy birfday!

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  5. Beck and Palin will stop at nothing to keep themselves from being marginalized. I think they will be in for a shock as the country moves on and they are left with a handful of delusional followers that think like they do.

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  6. This was in the Daily Beast this morning:

    Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and a crowd of thousands descended on the National Mall in Washington yesterday where politics took a backseat to calls of "restoring honor" back to America. After taking flak for scheduling the rally on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech, Beck made the gathering more about religion, saying "We've got to go to God Bootcamp." He also stuck back at what he sees as a divided America: "There is growing hatred in the country. We must be better than what we've allowed ourselves to become." But Beck can't profit from fear and division all week during his radio show and then try to denounce them one Saturday, writes The Daily Beast's John Avlon. If he wants to get the "poison of hatred" out of the country, he'll first have to apply the standard to his own televangelism as well.

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  7. First off, Happy Birthday. many happy returns. Make sure Ken does something wonderful for you.
    Next, I love this post! What fire and brimstone (metaphor intended) you deliver. Beck is an extremist @$$hole who is certainly trying to set himself up as some kind of "new messiah" of the delusional right wing evangelical white folk. If you get a chance, and can stomach the actual audio, watch some of the clips of the rally. Notice anything diverse about the crowd? Of course not! They are all cheering loudly for civil rights, yet hate their black president for wanting to bring equality and justice to them rather than big business, hate their uppity women folk for wanting control of their own bodies, hate the gays for destroying the sanctity of their marriages, hate the Muslims for "terrorizing" the world with their community centers, hate just about anything you can think of that isn't already represented in that crowd with them.
    How hypocritical is that? He's a blight on our honor and a stain on our patriotism.
    "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."-Sinclair Lewis

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  8. First of all, Happy Birthday!!

    Secondly, check out one the t-shirt that one of the douchebags wore to "Whitestock" over on my blog...

    XOXOXO

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  9. Excellent post, Beth. Some great lines in there but a choice piece of work overall.

    Not to take anything at all away from Rosa Parks, but I just recently learned that a few years before her incident, none other than baseball-colour-barrier-breaker Jackie Robinson was actually court martialed a few years before for refusing to go to the back of the bus.

    @Big Mark: I liked your comment about fakirs and frauds. Beck being one of the biggest ones around, he is a true motherfakir.

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  10. THIS is the spokesman God has chosen? He just makes one bad p.r. move after another.

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  11. We have to get used to conservative hypocrisy. It's not going to go away.

    And I was very much alive when the civil rights movement was happening. Beck has no first hand knowledge of what went on, nor would he have the courage to put up with the suffering that accompanied it. They hated us demonstrators so much that we were beaten and arrested. I was hit by a club and thrown, literally, into a police wagon. The DC cop said that the only reason I was in there and he was outside was because of the club. Some of my friends were pulverized by water cannons. One black man I knew of was tied to a tree, covered in gasoline and set on fire while the other guys watched and laughed.

    The equal rights energy was not about drinking fountains, schools and seats on a bus. Those were symbolic. It was a much bigger thing involving tens of thousands of people all over the country. It wasn't just about blacks either, but about the old, young, Asians, Hispanics and, yes, Muslims. Todaqy there are entrances to buildings for the handicapped. They are there because thinking was changed about people's rights.

    One cannot commemorate Dr. King without knowing who he was and what he did for America. They gunned him down and they gunned down two Kennedy's with their hatred. And evidently it's still going on. The promise that was America is not in the hands of the hypocrites and never will be.

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  12. Beautiful post Beth. Very well said. Happy, belated, B-day wishes!

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  13. I love your blog so much! Here, I can say what I really think. And what I really think is: 1) Beck is in the market for a new job; 2)He doesn't sleep, which spells bipolar disorder to me, with the attendant delusions of grandeur; 3)It's all about his bottom line, so, if Murdoch and the Koch brothers aren't footing all the bills, then it's time for tax-exempt status as a minister to a church...The Church of Bring Cash.

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  14. I really had no idea he was a Mormon. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

    My husband, a black man, was born in 1960, and he would never claim the Civil Rights Movement as his own. He has been discriminated against because of his skin color, he had to go to sub-par schools in Alabama because of his skin color, and he and I have been shot at because we are a mixed-race couple, and *still* he would never claim the Civil Rights Movement as his own. Neither would I, and I probably would have more right to it than Beck. I know he and his kind are just going to get worse and worse. It's going to get more and more ridiculous. Each time I think he can't get more ridiculous than he already has, he proves me wrong!

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I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you?