Image via Wikipedia Suppose, for the sake of discussion, that Newt Gingrich gets the Republican nomination for president. If you vote for Gingrich instead of Obama next November, says Glenn Beck, you're a racist. That's what he told Fox News host Andrew Napolitano on December 9's "Freedom Watch" show. Here's what Beck said:
“If you have a big government progressive, or a big government progressive in Obama… ask yourself this, Tea Party: is it about Obama’s race? Because that’s what it appears to be to me. If you’re against him but you’re for this guy, it must be about race. I mean, what else is it? It’s the policies that matter.”
Got that? I'm no fan of Newt Gingrich, and I agree that he is not a true conservative. But Gingrich would be a helluva lot better than another four years of Obama. I say that without consideration for race. I say that because Barack Obama's socialist policies, combined with his fascist embrace of banks and auto manufacturers, not to mention "Obamacare," have taken this country from serious condition in 2008 to critical in 2012. Gingrich could not possibly be worse, and even with his progressive tendencies in some areas, President Gingrich would be better for the nation than more of Obama.
Yet Glenn Beck says that you would be a racist if you voted for Gingrich over Obama. Beck's premise for saying that is flawed: He equates moderate Republican Gingrich with quasi-Socialist, Constitution trampling Obama. Again, I'm no fan of Gingrich, but I'll willingly and without hesitation hold my nose and vote for him next November if it comes down to that.
Beck's own hypocrisy here is stunning. On the April 6, 2010, Beck said this:
"When did referring to someone as a socialist become akin to calling somebody a racist name? I mean, I understand the meaning of racist words and the hurt there. But socialism is not that. That's political ideology defined by discernable characteristics and if somebody points out those characteristics, you're pointing out a political viewpoint or policy." - Glenn Beck show, Fox News
In that show, Beck called Obama a Marxist. He's called Obama a Marxist many, many times. Call Gingrich what you will, nobody has ever seriously thought of him as a Marxist. Why Beck suddenly feels that getting Gingrich as our next president would be worse than four more years of the "Marxist" Obama is a mystery.
Today, in late 2011, Beck is equates a voting for Gingrich over voting for Obama to racism. Perhaps Beck forgot his own words, or did not mean them in the first place. Perhaps he no longer thinks that Tea Party people - or anybody else, for that matter, including Democrats who have lost faith in the Obama they once voted for - are capable of choosing Gingrich over the full destructive policies of Obama. To paraphrase Beck himself, to vote for Gingrich over Obama would be voting out a political viewpoint or policy, not racism. I mean, I understand the meaning of racist words and the hurt there. But voting for the far-lesser of two evils, and against more Marxism, is not that.
Breitbart and Beck both have huge egos, so it should be interesting to watch this clash of media titans as it plays out. I suspect it will not end soon. Breitbart's book, "Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World!" is available at Amazon.com and is testimony to his sense of self importance. (While you're at Amazon, by the way, check out "Debunking Glenn Beck: How to Save America from Media Pundits and Propagandists" by Karl Alan Rogers.)
Image via WikipediaI was a Glenn Beck fan years before many of you probably even heard of him. I loved his goofy radio show, and it was interesting to watch him "evolve" into a serious political commentator. What's worried me over the past two years, and really broke his spell on me about a year ago, was the realization that Glenn Beck is no expert on anything.Beck repeats what he's told by paid staffers and advisors who have fooled him into thinking that they are experts. Sure, I've agreed with much of what Beck has told us, but just this one statement alone is enough for me to no longer simply not be a Beck fan. I now actively dislike him.
I don't trust him. I am offended by him. As Breitbart said of Beck, "“I don’t care what he does, because he is dead to me."
