The Glenn Beck Party?

Fox News spokesdouche Glenn Beck is seeking a more direct role in American politics, though it sounds mostly like a clever marketing campaign: "He will promote voter registration drives and sponsor a series of conventions across the country featuring conservative speakers, all leading up to a rally in Washington in August to coincide with the release of his book on conservative proposals for the country."

• [benher]

  Awesome. Glen is living the dream – making money for hamming it up on his show (now a traveling show it seems) for throngs of devoted followers. A money spewing congregation hanging off his every sound byte.

  If I was a different person (like, say, a much more evil person interested only in filthy lucre) I’m sure fake preacher/church leader/political pundit would be the profession of choice in such a fear-strangled and politically polarized environment.

• [Dave Faris]

  It’s pretty easy to dismiss the people who follow Beck and Palin as idiots or subhumans or troglodytes. The fact is, even if they are snake oil salesmen of the 21st century, they have an audience for a reason. And unless Obama can effectively diffuse the anger and mistrust of government, people like Beck and Palin will continue to have an eager audience.

  • [Cowicide]

    Dave, we already tried appeasing the subhumans and troglodytes for 8 years. Now look where we are.

• [yrogerg]

  You did actually miss the douchiest part of this particular douchery, which is the particular date in August Beck picked for that culminating Washinton rally: August 28th, better known as the anniversary of MLK’s “I have a Dream” speech. He is, in fact, proposing appropriating for a tea-bagger-style rally, complete with paranoid militia-talking-point regurgitation and simmering, barely-concealed racism, a day that has hithertofore been known as the anniversary of one of the most influential and memorable civil rights events in American history

  And lest one be tempted to suppose that this might somehow be mere coincidence, Beck had previously proposed a “9/12ers’” week of national prayer and fasting, to coincide with Yom Kippor of this year.

• [scifijazznik]

  Rush has his “dittoheads.” Beck has…um…”Beckerheads?”

• [Anonymous]

  I am all for increasing voter participation. However, thinkers going as far back as Aristotle believed democratic participation should involve the educated voter. I’ve watched Glenn Beck and he does not facilitate the democratic process or educate. He spits out misinformation and makes statements that would cause people slightly familiar with logical fallacies to cringe uncontrollably. The reason why compulsory education came around in the US was so that all citizens could read and understand what their lawmakers were passing. Glenn Beck and most of his audience do not understand what their lawmakers are doing and yet they are fully literate.

  I’m 22 and have voted in more elections than people I’ve met in their 40s (I’ve voted 4 times going on 5 since I was able to vote). I try to be an educated voter because I believe in democratic values and free and fair elections. Americans take these things for granted. My father came from a country with extensive vote rigging and massacres of protesters.

• [Anonymous]

  Who better to write a book on arguing with idiots than Glenn Beck…he certainly speaks their language.

• [daev]

  I’m appalled that my favorite website would stoop so low as to use the term “spokesdouche”. Such crass name calling, when Real Americans (TM) know that Beckerhead is the leader for right-thinking, decent people.

• [M]

  I genuinely fear for the day when we have a country run by the dumbest, most violent sector because those of us who are rational have been driven away by the futility of finding any candidate who is responsive to our issues. This will be directly the fault of the major parties becoming the representatives of business rather than the people.

  • [Cowicide]

    I will only be half-surprised if eventually Glenn Beck and his fat ass flock end up marching on Washington demanding that we begin irrigating all our crops with Gatorade.

  • [Anonymous]

    More and more, we get the government we deserve. The pendulum swings, and then it swings back. The strangest part of what I’ve seen in the last several decades is the attack on education… as if one can be too educated as in having too many facts at one’s disposal.
    Good judgment is attacked as an “elitist” quality, something to be shunned, while the people of the Wal-Mart take over the country.
    “Ignorant and proud of it?” We’re friggin’ doomed.

• [Anonymous]

  I used to think Limbaugh was a demagogue, but to his “credit” he is mostly a lazy whiner with a radio show, whereas Beck seems to have a lot more energy, and could actually rile up crowds of people into some kind of insane frenzy. Imagine if they pass a health care bill, I can see Beck urging a crowd to invade congress for a sit-in, or to harass Democratic congressmen. They are so convinced our country is turning communist I would not be at all surprised if they turn violent; it reminds me of those commercials where they invent a problem (“eggs are soooo hard to crack!”) and then sell you a product to “solve that problem”– the USA is not turning communist you idiots, do you think any of the huge corporations that basically own congressmen would allow us to turn communist? Where’s the profit in that?

  • [Anonymous]

    It’s simple, really: 233 years later, Beck is leading the counter-revolution to bring back corporate control of “the colonies.”

• [IamInnocent]

  On the very good days, about 1% of the US population tune in to listen to O’Reilly and Beck. Of these, in all appearances, many are people of opposite opinion hungry for a freak show. Without the other media, like BB here, acting as echo chambers, this man would be of no consequence whatsoever.

  • [Cowicide]

    I kind of agree with you, but at the same time…

    I wouldn’t completely discount these buffoons’ ability to sway enough other buffoons into making bad things happen. We should call out buffoonery wherever we find it or it can grow amongst the ignorant like a virus.

    The lead up to the Iraq war is a great example. The derailment of a single payer system in this country is yet another.

    We need to stop letting these buffoons run rampant without an answer… in the end, this kind of rampant ignorance really does end up destroying lives here and abroad.

  • [Teller]

    “Without the other media, like BB here, acting as echo chambers, this man would be of no consequence whatsoever.”

    I really appreciate BB. It allows me to express my opinions to other people who can type and like to. But I’m not sure BB’s obsession with right-wing follies helps to prop up right-wing spokespeople. Fox News consistently outpulls, by a wide margin, the other cable channels nightly – not because it’s better, it isn’t, but because it’s unabashedly conservative among news outlets that aren’t. It actually is an alternative channel, as odd as that sounds. Were there more TV news shows that expressed conservative views, one would hope more intelligently, it would dilute Fox’s drawing power and people like Glenn Beck would be less noticeable.

• [mdh]

  The antisocial troglodytes who watch Beck aren’t tolerant enough for real teamwork.

  Noisemaking, otoh.

  • [danlalan]

    A mob of troglodytes is still a mob…

    • [mdh]

      yeah, and as soon as the loudspeakers break, they turn on each other to play Alpha male games.

      It will amount to little, because that’s what they are. Little. Small. Pathetic. And the anger comes fromt their vague self-knowlegde… not from Beck.

      Beck just taps into it.

      • [danlalan]

        It is, it seems to me, this crowd exactly that some of the most odious aspects of neo-con ideology are most likely to be effective with. Convince them that there is an enemy to channel the alpha aggressiveness and point them at a target. Keep the threat of the “enemy” present in their consciousness to maintain control. And once the mindset is in place it doesn’t matter who the “enemy” is or even if they’re really an “enemy” as long as they’re different, and so with a little sleight of hand anyone different makes a good potential “enemy”. Bleagh.

• [ROSSINDETROIT]

  I actually kind of like the idea of Lady Blahblah the former governor of a cold place soaking up a lot of media attention. She’s a harmless dead end and the hours the MSM spend on her are lost to those like Cheney and Rove who could get on and do real mischief.
  Beck, on the other hand is an evil genius. He sees profit in chaos. It doesn’t matter to him in which direction the mob charges off as long as he sold them the torches and pitchforks.

• [rorschachian]

  This link seems rather appropriate:

  http://www.hulu.com/watch/106219/onion-news-network-victim-in-fatal-car-accident-tragically-not-glenn-beck

  There truly is no harder thing than to have Glenn Beck outlive your child.

• [adamnvillani]

  So, when people inevitably fill out false voter registration cards, and Glenn Beck — as he is legally obligated to do — turns these in to the authorities along with all the other voter registration cards that he collected, do we then get to accuse him of trying to steal elections fraudulently, the way that they’ve accused ACORN of doing?

• [mgfarrelly]

  While I mostly find Beck and his ilk to be little more than low comedy, there’s something deeply unsettling in the trend of media mouthpieces taking “Network” as a piece of non-fiction to be emulated.

  Beck and Hannity and Limbaugh and Levin and Savage and even Palin are not interested in governance. They pride themselves on having the simple solution to every problem (“Cut Taxes!”) as if lawmakers are simply unaware of the idea. “Freeze spending!” they scream and yet nearly half our budget goes to defense spending and anyone who dares suggest cutting it even one iota is a traitor.

  The truth is, these people are interested in ratings, in selling book, in making a great deal of money off of the outrage (and in no small part, racial panic) of many Americans. It’s a game to them, and the more they win the more we lose.

• [ackpht]

  I think these pundits are meant to divert the public’s attention from those making the decisions- legislatures.

  We should be paying attention to the people writing and passing legislation- what they do, how they vote, who is sending money to them, and for what.

  Let the showmen twist in the wind.

• [nerak]

  LoL spokesdouche… that made my day, best word to describe him.

• [Anonymous]

  I think more people participating in government is a good thing – regardless of who motivates them to get involved. That’s what popular sovereignty is all about.

  • [rorschachian]

    To Anonymous on popular sovereignty:

    Of course people participating in government is a wonderful thing, and it is the only thing that prevents democracy from becoming tyranny – well, that and the rule of law. The problem with Glenn Beck and his ilk is that they outright lie to people so that those people do not know how to properly participate.

    The Jeffersonian ideal of an informed citizen still exists in this country, and that person may be liberal, conservative, socialist, libertarian, or moderate. However, the people who follow Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Palin, etc. are organizing behind lies (i.e. untruths, distortions of facts, fantasy land stuff).

    The result isn’t “people participating in government” – it is an unruly, ignorant mob. No one wants our government subject to such whims, including the Founders.

• [Anonymous]

  He might be a “Spokesdouche”, but he is far from an idiot.

  • [Cowicide]

    he is far from an idiot.

    Yeah, you are correct. An idiot is a person of subnormal intelligence. Beck is actually a person of subhuman intelligence.

  • [Brainspore]

    He might be a “Spokesdouche”, but he is far from an idiot.

    On the contrary- Glenn Beck is never far from an idiot. He’s usually surrounded by them, in fact. Who do you think buys all his books?

• [Johnny Coelacanth]

  ‘Spokesdouche’ indeed. I love you, Xeni. I’m sure someone will pop in soon enough to whine about uncivil namecalling or otherwise defend the indefensible but really, screw them. You’re dead to rights on this one.

• [Anonymous]

  Palin/Beck in 2012! You heard it here first! They’ll win because all the sane people will be gibbering in horror and unable to make it to the polls. Also in 2012: the Mayan apocalypse! COINCIDENCE? I think not!

  • [jfrancis]

    To be honest I didn’t hear that here first.

• [danlalan]

  Well, this certainly seems to confirm the Obama administrations assertion that F***ews is the information arm of the Republican party (if there was any lingering doubt in anyone’s mind). Spokesdouche indeed.

• [Menlo Bob]

  If as some here believe the highest form of democracy is reserved for only the smartest then come out and say it by denouncing voter drives for youth and slum dwellers. Until then we’ll put you down as not really for democracy, but fully engaged in limited government–government limited to leftists.

  • [taj]

    Menlo Bob, I don’t think anyone suggested that people need to be “smart” to be involved. The key word is “educated”. And that doesn’t mean they need a degree or diploma; but rather information.

  • [Cowicide]

    If as some here believe the highest form of democracy is reserved for only the smartest then come out and say it by denouncing voter drives for youth and slum dwellers.

    I don’t know about you, Menio, but in my experience I’ve found plenty of intelligent people who are disadvantaged and live in poor areas. Some people happen to live in slums because of various misfortune, health issues and/or they were simply raised there. And, as for “youth”, I’ve found many of them to be quite bright as well. I would never, ever denounce a voter drive anywhere… but.. ah.. maybe you would?

    But, you’re correct in thinking that I’m tired of misled, ignorant people (wherever they live and whatever race or age they are) calling the shots in this country; it’s killing the rest of us and they are ironically destroying themselves in the process. They can vote all they want and they can spew misinformation and ignorance all they want… but the informed need to call it out at every turn to keep the disease of ignorance from spreading.

    You are very free to be stupid… as we are very free to call it out and arm ourselves and others against said stupidity. Now go ahead and try to convince me and udders that tax cuts to the rich create jobs when it has failed miserably and other ignorant nonsense… but I’m going to attack you with facts whether you think that “hurts your freedoms” or not.

    Yours truly,

    Cowicide,
    The socialist, nazi, commie, leftist, pacifist, fascist, extreme moderate from fucking hell.

• [Daemon]

  I, for one, fully support the existance of a Glen Beck party. If only to split the conservative vote.

• [Neon Tooth]

  “coincide with the release of his book”

  Too bad none of his followers will see this for what it really is.

  • [AirPillo]

    Plenty of them do, in fact.

    The problem here, is that the strategy of cultivating ire against “the enemy within” has been successful with some people… and the result of this is that they don’t care how selfish and corrupt someone is, as long as they hurt the “enemy” more than anyone else.

    I have run into a lot of people who approach this as a sort of war… as long as they’re hurting the other side more than they’re hurting themselves, they’re winning, or so they think.

    This is obscenely unhealthy to a democracy, but there’s little you can do to sway the opinions of someone who truly believes you’re an inferior class of human and need to be purged.

• [Josh]

  I have a pretty blind hatred for this man. However, I can’t help but wonder if he truly believes everything he says or if he is just playing a character and exploiting our coutry’s need for pundits. If the latter is true, then I like Glen Beck quite a lot, even though his rhetoric can be dangerous. But, I don’t think this is the case. I think he’s an idiot that somehoe got a really big bullhorn. I’m tempted to say I want him dead, but then the Fox News viewers wwould make him into a martyr, and we simply can’t have that.

• [thequickbrownfox]

  Looks like he wants to set up something like ACORN for wingnuts.

• [vinegartom23]

  Anyone else notice how he looks more and more like Biff Tannen in Back to the Future the older he gets? What a butthead.

• [Roach McKrackin]

  This is different than Al Frankin how? I mean, besides the fact he’s not a liberal…