Everyones New Favorite Extremist

Glenn Beck, since jumping ship from Headline News to Fox News has taken the nation by storm. With Katrina like devastation, Beck has found himself on the lips of all news media outlets from TIME to Keith Olbermann's "Worst People". And he has done so by truly putting Barnum and Bailey's circus tactics on air. The man at any one time can go from crying about his love of the country to Pentacostal scare tactics about the fire and brimstone that is President Obama's Socialist agenda to playing Jenga to making fun of himself. For all it's over the top antics, it's got to be an awful joke right. Right?

There's a movie out there called >"The Last Supper". The 1996 film staring Cameron Diaz, is about five liberal grad students who take it upon themselves to kill off anyone whose views may differ from their own, and are deemed dangerous. This includes anti-environmentalist Jason Alexander, a redneck war vet Bill Paxton, so forth and so on. The group then puts the bodies in the ground and plants tomatoes around the bodies.

Well one day, while taking a vacation from killing they come across a television rightwinger right out of Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Lou Dobbs playbook. They invite this man, played by Ron Pearlman for anyone interested, over for dinner thinking they got their big catch. While having a discussion during dinner, per ritual, they come to find out his views are very simular to their own.

In a well put statement, Pearlman's character explains to the group that it is the middle that runs the country, its just the extremist on both the left and the right that talk the loudest. He also tells them that he doesn't do his show to gain fame for political gain, that his show gives him more power than the president. While the president has to answer to congress and to the people, his show, his "character" doesn't.

Well ladies and gentleman, that is where Glenn Beck finds himself. Maybe his views are like ours, and he's just playing a bit to get a rise out of people and it works. However, the danger with Mr. Beck lies in the times. We are at a dangerous crossroads in American history. There is an old saying, "those who don't learn from
the past are doomed to repeat it." After World War I, when the allies took everything from Germany as punishment, they were an angry bunch looking for someone to blame. Along came a failed painter whose charisma carried him to the heights of his socialist party all the way up to chancellor. He put together rallies. He told the down and out German's who was REALLY to blame. He even wrote a book about how they were going to change all their luck.

Now, I'm not necessarily saying that Glenn Beck is Hitler, instead he just wants to be famous. For 2 years in college I was a radio disc jockey. One of the first things the upperclassmen told me was you know you've made it when you recieve a letter or call from the prision. Well, in my 2 years, I recieved numerous calls and one letter from the prision, so I guess I made it. It's the same way for Beck. As reported on Olbermann's "Worst People" all Glenn Beck wants is for Saturday Night Live to parody him. Is that too much to ask for, I mean all the BTK killer wanted was a movie made about him and he got that, why not give Glenn Beck a parody on SNL?

More to the point, Glenn Beck now enjoys millions of viewers on the conservative flagship television station. What makes it dangerous is the fact that his base, the right wing conservatives are looking for someone to trust and listen to. The Republican party is on life support and is looking for anyone to take it back to the Grand Ol' Party days. Thanks to 8 great years under Bush, the party is lost and looking for someway to regain votes. And the way they are doing that is by fear mongering. If they tell you that Barack Obama and the Democrats are bringing about Socialistic changes and anyone who follows them is a commie-pinko, those who let the GOP doing their thinking for them will believe it. I mean it worked for Joe McCarthy.

Ultimately this ties into the point of "Political Liability" as a blog. We don't want you to follow either party blindly, that's not democracy, that's not even a republic. We are going to give you our opinions, think of them what you will, there is no right or wrong. Understand that there is always going to be a disenfranchised middle. During the Bush years, it was the intellectuals, the people who didn't want a government with a gestapo who had a list of enemies and interegated "the enemy" in the dark of night. Now, its the religious and the right. Those that were catered to for 8 years under the Bush administration.

Think of it this way,"we will not go quietly into the night, we will not give up without a fight" (courtesy of Independance Day).