This weekend sees the “Restoring Honor” event in DC. Its Glen Beck’s event which no one seems to know what it is about, just that they want to go and see. Politico quoted me on the subject and gave me credit for the “Beckapalooza” tag.
““I call it ‘Beckaplooza,’ because it seems to be all about Beck,” said Andrew Ian Dodge, the Maine state coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, a coalition of local groups that has helped stage several big rallies, including the seminal Sept. 12, 2009 tea party rally that drew tens of thousands of people to Washington’s National Mall to protest what they saw as unchecked government expansion under President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress.”
What I don’t understand is why many on the right are not realising they are falling for the same sort of messianic style of politics that they so criticized about Obama.
“As you see, Obama is no longer an ordinary mortal. Instead, he has been elevated to a symbolic level, where his name is unnecessary (we all know it, don’t we?), his goal is unmentioned (I think he’s above petty politics), and his qualifications are irrelevant (good thing, too, since he doesn’t have any). Instead, all that’s left is his almost superhuman visage, which is allied with one magical word: “change.” The political poster has been transformed from advertisement to iconography.”
Obama and Beck have similar issues of ego and even some might say narcissism, but many on the right are blind to it.
“Bruce P. Majors. I don’t like how much religion is in his political philosophy and I thought his interview w/Palin odd. For bringing authors from Hayek to Schlaes to a mass audience, for letting politically incorrect African Americans appear on TV for the first time ever, and for exposing the deep fascism of the tax predator ruling class, he is a minor deity.”
They don’t even seem to mind that he claims that its “non-political” but the uber-political figure of Sarah Palin is the major speaker at the event. How can you actually believe that its non-political when she is speaking?
WSJ reports that Beck did not know about the significance of the date. Surely he does not think anyone believes this to be true. Or does he think that if he says something it makes it true, something else he would share with Obama.
“Beck has said he didn’t know that Aug. 28 was the anniversary of King’s speech until after he announced the event, but that he believed the rally was in keeping with King’s ideals.”
Does anyone think this sort of deranged rant helps the cause? Or maybe this one? Surely paranoia on such a grand scale does not help the image of critics of the President.
When non-fans watch Beck on his TV show they can get the same creepy politics mixed with religion vibe that I got watching Obama as he ran for President. Ironically Beck has said he prefers Obama in an interview post election.
Why are people on the right making the same mistake as many who fell for Obama’s rhetoric and style? Can’t people see the hypocrisy in their actions? Do they realise that their quasi-religious hero is a Mormon who seems to see himself as a modern day Joseph Smith?
To butcher Monty Python’s “Life of Brian’s” famous line. “He is not the bleeding messiah, he is just a very egotistical boy.”
The success or lack thereof of Beckapalooza this Saturday has little to do with the tea party movement, as he is not its leader or even part of it, and all to do with Beck’s cult of personality.
