Glen Beck is REAAAALLY trying it!

[Ben]

I don't much care for Glen Beck...but can we please...pleaaasssssee...avoid quoting that insufferable, pompous big bag of wind Keith Olbermann...he's completely unlikable... I absolutely can't stand him.

I was more concerned with Alexander Zaitchik... Who has written a book on Glenn Beck.

[Ben]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA7GvNYAVyY

[Ben]

Published on Saturday, September 4, 2010 by The Progressive Glenn Beck and the Yearning for Fascism

by Matthew Rothschild

Glenn Beck’s got me worried again about fascism in America.
His so-called restoring honor rally last weekend assumed that somehow America has been dishonored, and that is a classic trope of fascists.
Nor was I comforted by all talk from Beck about “America today begins to turn back to God.”
Nor was I comforted by the full-throated and repeated chants of “USA, USA.”
Nor by Sarah Palin having the gall to claim “we feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King,” this just 10 days after she told Dr. Laura to “reload,” after the talk show host said the N word 11 times in five minutes.
As if the rally wasn’t enough, Beck continued on his crusade during the week. Check this comment out: Beck said, “There are a lot of universities that are as dangerous with the indoctrination of the children as terrorists are in Iran or North Korea.”
The irony is that Ahmadinejad has actually denounced the universities in Iran with similar disdain. One year into his first term, he asked scornfully “why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities." He and Beck see eye to eye on that one.
Beck made a fool of himself also when he said, later in the week, that a flock of geese that appeared in the sky “was God’s flyover,” taking the place of an Air Force flyover he was not able to arrange. All of Beck’s references to “divine providence” and doing the work of God reminded me of a quote from W. S. Merwin, our new poet laureate, who once wrote: “The president of lies quotes the voices of God.”
I’ve been taking seriously the warnings of Noam Chomsky http://www.progressive.org/rothschild0610.html, who says he senses “the dark clouds of fascism” gathering here at home. I also take seriously the writings of Chris Hedges, the former New York Times reporter and author of several great books, including “War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.” A couple years ago, Hedges wrote another book called “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America.”
And back in March, Hedges elaborated on the theme: “The language of violence always presages violence. When someone like Palin posts a map with cross hairs on the districts of Democrats, when she says “Don’t Retreat, Instead—RELOAD!” there are desperate people cleaning their weapons who listen. When Christian fascists stand in the pulpits of megachurches and denounce Barack Obama as the Antichrist, there are messianic believers who listen. . . .These movements are not yet full-blown fascist movements. They do not openly call for the extermination of ethnic or religious groups. They do not openly advocate violence. But, as I was told by Fritz Stern, a scholar of fascism who has written about the origins of Nazism, ‘In Germany there was a yearning for fascism before fascism was invented.’ It is the yearning that we now see, and it is dangerous. If we do not immediately reincorporate the unemployed and the poor back into the economy, giving them jobs and relief from crippling debt, then the nascent racism and violence that are leaping up around the edges of American society will become a full-blown conflagration. Left unchecked, the hatred for radical Islam will transform itself into a hatred for Muslims. The hatred for undocumented workers will become a hatred for Mexicans and Central Americans. The hatred for those not defined by this largely white movement as American patriots will become a hatred for African-Americans. The hatred for liberals will morph into a hatred for all democratic institutions, from universities to government agencies to the press.”
Hedges was prescient here, anticipating the anti-immigrant wave and the anti-Muslim wave—and even Beck’s swipe at the universities.
Hedges also talked about the urgent need to give people jobs lest more people succumb to the lure of fascism.
Another intellectual I greatly admire, Walden Bello, just echoed Hedges’s warning about the economic crisis feeding into fascism. In his article “Can You Say, Fascism? The Political Consequences of Stagnation,” Bellow writes: “The common failure of both market fundamentalists and technocratic Keynesians so far to address the fears of the unemployed, the about-to-be unemployed, and the vast numbers of economically insecure people will most likely produce social forces that would tackle their fears and problems head-on. A failure of the left to innovatively fill this space will inevitably spawn a reinvigorated right with fewer apprehensions about state intervention, one that could combine technocratic Keynesian initiatives with a populist but reactionary social and cultural program. There is a term for such a regime: fascist. . . . Fascism in the United States? It's not as far-fetched as you might think.”
Consider yourself forewarned.
© 2010 The Progressive
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.

[Faldur]

Editor of "The Progressive Magazine".. great independent source.

[nightshift]

Glen Beck and Sarah Palin are down by law. lol

Hey, I think the Republican's just found their new ticket!

[tslvrnyc]

Sorry spud, but you're going to have to go into that "ton of other things" to find something that actually shows that the feds control the day to day lives of the American people.

I'll give you the drugs thing. The banned substances anyway. But the rest of it? How does the regulation of interstate commerce control your day to day life? Almost your entire list is just about regulation of interstate or international commerce, & that was mentioned in the post that you just answered. That's what national governments are supposed to do, but you talk about it as if it's some kind of sinister malevolence. It doesn't affect you at all, unless you're trying to pull something you shouldn't. What? You want to go back to the "good old days" of serfdom & abject poverty? Do you really think the egoist Ayn Rand fairyland could or should ever exist in reality?

Here:

The Interstate Commerce Clause is the basis of most federal laws. It was a huge power-grab for the federal government and is the antithesis of the principles of those who established the US. I'm not one to blindly adhere to the ideas of the founding fathers, but I do believe strongly in states' rights. The original idea was that there were different states that had different cultures and different ideas on how to live.

[giovanni_hotel]

Editor of "The Progressive Magazine".. great independent source.

I don't care if it was written by Bozo the Clown, the historical analysis and the growing influence of the radical right wing IMO is spot on.

No one is putting words in the mouths of Beck/Palin and their ilk. The political climate we're currently witnessing in this country is unlike any most of us have ever seen.

Remember, guys like Beck and firebrands like 'Mama Grizzly' were banished to the fringes by moderate Conservatives just a few years ago.

Now they're being embraced as the leaders of a 'new' Conservative movement.

When nearly half of all Americans believe Obama either is a Muslim or say they 'don't know', those are ominous signs for the future of this country.

I'm beginning to think there were tens of millions of Americans who were literally dumbstruck when Obama won the general election in '08, almost like they didn't know he was a candidate for POTUS.

[PomonaCA]

I don't care if it was written by Bozo the Clown, the historical analysis and the growing influence of the radical right wing IMO is spot on.

No one is putting words in the mouths of Beck/Palin and their ilk. The political climate we're currently witnessing in this country is unlike any most of us have ever seen.

Remember, guys like Beck and firebrands like 'Mama Grizzly' were banished to the fringes by moderate Conservatives just a few years ago.

Now they're being embraced as the leaders of a 'new' Conservative movement.

When nearly half of all Americans believe Obama either is a Muslim or say they 'don't know', those are ominous signs for the future of this country.

I'm beginning to think there were tens of millions of Americans who were literally dumbstruck when Obama won the general election in '08, almost like they didn't know he was a candidate for POTUS.

Will someone call the waaambulance for this guy? Millions of people voted for obama and he won the election. Things aren't working out for him so what does the left do? Cry racism. So were Americans racist before or racist after electing him?

And as for conservatives embracing people like Palin, you can thank the teleprompter-in-chief for that. He's done such a poor job of managing the economic environment in this country that he's left himself ripe for a fall.

If you resent the popularity of guys like Beck you ought to start by resenting the chimp-in-chief who has neglected the unemployment numbers so callously.

[giovanni_hotel]

Most of the voter eligible population doesn't even vote, maybe in a good year we get 60% turnout for a presidential general election. So that leaves 40 % of voters, mostly White, roughly half conservative, who didn't bother in 2008.

BHO not once has ever used the word 'racism' as to why he's experiencing a 'perception' problem among most Americans. It's more than his race IMO, it's his exotic background, his 'foreigner' name, his demeanor, his 'newness'; the perfect storm of right-wing paranoia.

A Black president from Detroit named Joe Smith would not be facing the level of vitriole and scrutiny that Obama has.

And please, if you think any President could have turned around the unemployment numbers and juiced the economy in less than two years(!!), you're one of the right-wing sheeple who really aren't paying attention.

Pick whoever you want to see in the WH in 2013, the economy is still going to be flat and the unemployment numbers will still be hovering around 6-7%.

'Teleprompter-in-chief', is this really supposed to be an insult??

'Chimp in chief', yeah, you just showed your ass on that one, bro.

Forget the economy, the country really is not in a good place right now, when there are people who have major issues with the POTUS because he doesn't have the right 'paint job'.

[PomonaCA]

Most of the voter eligible population doesn't even vote, maybe in a good year we get 60% turnout for a presidential general election. So that leaves 40 % of voters, mostly White, roughly half conservative, who didn't bother in 2008.

BHO not once has ever used the word 'racism' as to why he's experiencing a 'perception' problem among most Americans. It's more than his race IMO, it's his exotic background, his 'foreigner' name, his demeanor, his 'newness'; the perfect storm of right-wing paranoia.

A Black president from Detroit named Joe Smith would not be facing the level of vitriole and scrutiny that Obama has.

And please, if you think any President could have turned around the unemployment numbers and juiced the economy in less than two years(!!), you're one of the right-wing sheeple who really aren't paying attention.

Pick whoever you want to see in the WH in 2013, the economy is still going to be flat and the unemployment numbers will still be hovering around 6-7%.

'Teleprompter-in-chief', is this really supposed to be an insult??

'Chimp in chief', yeah, you just showed your ass on that one, bro.

Forget the economy, the country really is not in a good place right now, when there are people who have major issues with the POTUS because he doesn't have the right 'paint job'.

Forget the economy? LOL The left is so out of touch with reality that I can't even laugh at what you boobs say anymore.

Forget the economy? LOL!!! You guys are out of touch.