Glenn Beck staking out political activist territory

by smkovalinsky | November 21, 2009 at 06:04 pm

296 views | 9 Recommendations | 11 comments

"He stakes his life on following his will": Beck stakes his territory in the tumultuous political arena of these times

Wildly popular conservative pundit and Fox News host Glenn Beck, has declared his desire to expand his horizons beyond broadcasting his opinions and begin to seriously rally his political base — presumably coming from within the ranks of his audience — to take action.

To do so, Mr. Beck is styling himself as a political organizer. In an interview, he said he would promote voter registration drives and sponsor a series of seven conventions across the country featuring what he described as libertarian speakers.
On Saturday he held a festive campaign-style rally in The Villages in Florida, north of Orlando, in which he promoted his recently released book, “Arguing With Idiots,” and announced another book to come next August filled with right-leaning policy proposals gathered from the conventions.

And lest anyone doubt the seriousness with which Mr. Beck takes this enterprise, he has told his base what they can expect from his seminars: albeit, in less than clear terms, and with the actual details left to the imagination:

Mr. Beck provided few details about his plans for the tour, making it unclear if he truly intends to prod his audience of millions into political action or merely burnish his media brand ahead of a book release.

Mr. Beck did say the conventions would resemble educational seminars, and he emphasized that while candidates may align themselves with the values and principles that he espouses, he would not take the next step to endorse them.

In describing the conventions, he told the crowd on Saturday: “You’re going to learn about finance. You’re going to learn about community organizing. You’re going to learn everything we need to know if you want to be a politician.”

His staff would not say whether particular candidates for office in the 2010 midterm elections would be invited to speak at the conventions or the August rally.

As for the question of Mr. Beck’s intentions, “He might just be trying to sell books, but there are much simpler ways to sell books,” said Ari Rabin-Havt, a vice president at Media Matters, the liberal media monitoring group. He said Mr. Beck sounded more like a presidential candidate than a pundit.

Mr. Beck, having used his television and radio pulpit to lay out his list of the country’s impending problems — deficit spending, health care legislation that will “destroy” the economy, a dearth of “personal responsibility” — says he now wants to also provide solutions.

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Roy C

at 19:20 on November 21st, 2009

Beck is going to kick butt with this. This is the revolt against the revolt of the elites.

Let me explain that for those of you unfamiliar with Christopher Lasch's book, The Revolt of the Elites.

Lasch maintained that the elites were the threat to democracy, not the masses, as the regular folk were called in the hay day of fascism and communism.

Nowadays, as you see with the "Louisiana Purchase" of Sen Landrieu's vote with hundreds of millions of dollars, it is the elites who seek ways around participatory democracy, looking for ways to avoid yielding to the people.

Celente, the trend predictor, also saw this coming.

This is the Power Shift of Alvin Toffler.

The only one who cannot get it are the elites and those who support them because they are co-dependent on the elitist's narcissism. The co-dependent is the narcissistic supply for the elitist. His or her blessing and/or minor recognition are what the co-dependent seeks, having a lack of sense of themselves.

What helped kill the Mafia's stronghold in Sicily was the education of the average person who lost their dependency on others to help him.

Same here.

Power Shift talks about how information technology allows regular people the same communication tools and organizational capacities of the elitist. Nowadays, anyone can put a newsletter together, start a forum, and so on.

Beck has chosen to fill in the gap and get this to the average person. From this, we will return to democracy in a much more participatory way, the way it was in old town meetings.

smkovalinsky

at 19:23 on November 21st, 2009

I read almost everything Lasch ever wrote, and I own a copy of Toffler's Power Shift, which I read. Is THAT why Beck looks like a little boy, like a six year old in a man's body? I mean this seriously: Is that to evoke the "Hamlet love" is us??? Trouble is, Barack has it , too, and he ain't elite. No way, no how. Barack is good home boy. Harvard lowered its standards.

Roy C

at 19:28 on November 21st, 2009

Obama is the epitome of the left's elitism. Beck is the un-elitist who is anti-elitist. O' Reilly smacks of elitism still, but is anti- the existing elites, coming from a very regular middle class background.

O' Reilly went to Harvard for graduate work, too, by the way.

smkovalinsky

at 19:29 on November 21st, 2009

RNG: That is what my sister, a political sociology professor, said: She said, "I hope to hell Beck and Palin run on one ticket for President; there will be hoopla and media blitz, and all manner of thronging crowds. But it won't be enough, as it was not last time."

Roy C

at 19:43 on November 21st, 2009

Beck is not going to run. He is a Mormon. They are unelectable.

Hell, Obama would be out of office in 2010 if we had a parliamentary system. The congress will no longer be democrat. It will not be traditional country-club republican, either.

Hugh Askew

at 04:46 on November 22nd, 2009

Man. I gotta start payin' attention in class.

Beck is a mormon? His background, or is he of the practicing variety?

smkovalinsky

at 19:46 on November 21st, 2009

Why are Mormons unelectable? Mitt Romney was kind of odd, but Beck is very clean and wholesome seeming. Yes, he will run: Never say never. And my sister doesn't have to be right, she always was a big know-it-all. For some reason, it made me sad that you said his Mormonism who stand in his way. Barack has done as best he could. :(

Roy C

at 19:59 on November 21st, 2009

I like Romney, and Giuliani, both of whom are closer to JFK democrats than any of the other leading figures of the democrat party now.

The Mormons are unelectable because of the prejudice of the Christian right, that Dobbs guy. He screwed it up with his objections to Romney, a man with a ton of financial experience who would have been perfect as prez now.

No, for Barack to do his best we would have to melt his character down and recast him.

Barry Artiste

at 20:34 on November 21st, 2009

Go get em Beck

grayesun

at 07:43 on November 22nd, 2009

Our center-right country has awoken and is not only ready but eager to throw the radical liberals out and all the wimpy RINO's (like Bush, McCain, Snow & Collins) as well. Mainstream America now realizes most of the GOP has lost it's way drifting left, while the Dems have tacked extremely FAR Left...this is unacceptable and will be corrected decisively in 2010 elections as it was in 1994. FNC viewership continues to increase, pummeling all other cable news/opinion channels combined - this is a good sign for recapturing our USA; let's make sure we elect real Conservatives - not just Republicans! BTW - Beck is not a Conservative - he's a Libertarian.