Posted on 02/22/2010 2:09:25 PM PST by Steelfish
February 21 Saturday Night Beck
There’s a lot to say about CPAC. This morning the major papers are highlighting Glenn Beck’s speech. I like Glenn a lot and I think he has something to teach us. But not what he offered last night.
Analogizing his own struggles with alcohol to the problems of our polity and in our politics, he said, “Hello, my name is the Republican party, and I have a problem!” “I’m addicted to spending and big government.” ”It is still morning in America.” ”It just happens to be kind of a head-pounding, hung-over, vomiting-for-four-hours kind of morning in America. And it’s shaping up to be kind of a nasty day. But it is still morning in America.” And, again, “I believe in redemption, but the first step to getting redemption is you’ve got to admit that you’ve got a problem. I have not heard people in the Republican party yet admit that they have a problem.”
Glenn is among the best talkers in the business of broadcast. I am not sure he’s a very good listener.
First, there is a good and strong tradition in alcohol and drug treatment that personal failings should not be extrapolated into the public sphere; that too often when this is done, conclusions are reached based on the wrong motives and, often, the wrong analysis. Glenn has made that mistake here and taken to our politics a cosmologizing of his own deficiencies. This is not a baseless criticism; they are his own deficiencies that he keeps publicly redounding to and analogizing to. It is wrong and he is wrong.
Second, for him to continue to say that he does not hear the Republican party admit its failings or problems is to ignore some of the loudest and brightest lights in the party.
(Excerpt) Read more at corner.nationalreview.com ...
Who cares about what is in the article? Bill Bennett has no credibility. He is a socialist.
AT NRO, Mark Levin hammers Beck too:
I want to commend Bill Bennett for his wise piece this morning on the Corner. http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzM5OTJkYWE1ZTA5OTI1NWJiMjYwNDI4ZDg0NmQ3MGQ=
I agree with him. I have no idea what philosophy Glenn Beck is promoting. And neither does he. It’s incoherent. One day it’s populist, the next it’s libertarian bordering on anarchy, next it’s conservative but not really, etc. And to what end? I believe he has announced that he is no longer going to endorse candidates because our problems are bigger than politics. Well, of course, our problems are not easily dissected into categories, but to reject politics is to reject the manner in which we try to organize ourselves.
This is as old as Plato and Aristotle. Why would conservatives choose to surrender the political battlefield to our adversaries — who are trashing this society —when we must retake it in order to preserve our society? Philosophy, politics, culture, family, etc., are all of one. Edmund Burke, among others, wrote about it extensively, and far better that I possibly can. But all elements of the civil society require our defense. Besides, why preach such a strategy when conservatism is on the rise and the GOP is acting more responsibly?
Moreover, when he does discuss politics, which, ironically, is often, how can he claim today that there is no difference between the two parties when, but for the Republicans in Congress, government-run health care, cap-and-trade, card check, and a long list of other disastrous policies would already be law? The GOP is becoming more conservative thanks to the grass-roots movement and a political uprising across the country, which has even reached into New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Why keep pretending otherwise? My only conclusion is that he is promoting a third party or some third way, which is counter-productive to defeating Obama and the Democrat Congress. These are perilous times and this kind of an approach will keep the statists in power for decades.
And what of his flirtations with Ron Paul’s lunacy respecting America’s supposed provocations with her enemies, including al-Qaeda? Why should such a fatal defect in thinking be ignored? Do we conservatives agree with this?
Finally, Beck is fond of congratulating himself for being the only or the first host to criticize George Bush’s spending. This is demonstrably false. I not only attacked his spending, but the creation of the Homeland Security Department, the prescription drug add-on for Medicare, his “moderate” tax cuts, as well as his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, “comprehensive immigration reform,” and so forth. And I was not alone — Rush and Sean did the same, for example. And as someone who fought liberal Republicans in the trenches when campaigning for Reagan in 1976 and 1980, I don’t need lectures from Beck, who was nowhere to be found, about big-spending Republicans.
But this is not about me, or Beck, or Beck’s past drunkenness (which he endlessly wears as some kind of badge of honor). It is about preserving our society for our children and grandchildren. Beck spent precious little time aiming fire at Obama-Pelosi-Reid in his speech, and it is they who are destroying our country.
On as a positive note, I am personally happy to see that Beck has cleaned up his public act — as best I can tell, no more boiling fake frogs on TV or pretending to pour gasoline on someone — and the rest of it. But I do think his speech, which contained nuggets of truth heard before and read elsewhere, including on Rush’s show and in my book and many other books, may have distracted from some of the more compelling and coherent speeches at the event, including Marco Rubio’s superb speech. I fear the media will see to this. I hope not.
When the GOP held all 3 branches of government...
did the budget shrink?
did entitlements grow?
did the budget balance?
did NPR and Planned Parenthood and ACORN get defunded?
I think Glenn Beck made some great points.
He makes some excellent points. Beck has become a big disappointment. He can cry all he wants but I’m not buying what he’s selling. He’s a libertarian wolf in sheep’s clothing stalking the GOP.
So what’s your solution? What do you propose we do?
You mean Mark Romney Levin? I wouldn’t call him a socialist but rather a hack and socialist enabler.
Bill Bennett, Hannity, Levin, Romney, Huckabee, the ACU....they are the problem...
except for Huckabee they’re not my problem.
Elect more real conservatives. Fewer RINO’s like Bennett. Which is whats happening this year, so far.
To be fair, Levin picked Romney from what we had on the slate.
Were private property Rights restored?
Was free speech protected?
Was Fed Abuse of the everyday Public reduced?
Beck was dead on.
"Throw a rock at a pack of dogs. The one that yelps is the one you hit."
Got a whole pack of dogs yelping with one speech. Pretty damn good aim...
Regarding the facts of Republican past behavior,Beck was accurate in waaay too many examples he used.
Remember when El Presidente Jorge Boosh said he was a “moderate” not a conservative. He was telling the truth.
As a “moderate” he decided to add drugs for seniors in an attempt to buy voters - just like the Democrats, but more so.
Regarding any real control of our borders (a Federal job, according to the Constitution), Bush refused any real action to control our borders.
Welfare must end, union and gooberment pension promises can’t be paid (and shouldn’t be!), ad nauseam.
It is time to cut government back to its strict Constitutionally defined areas.
Bill Bennet is not a RINO. He’s a solid conservative but he’s too gentle with the left. But last I checked he wasn’t running for anything.
Consider, after going off and spending money like a drunken sailor, the RINOS have decided they were in error. Huh? Now they are sorry and are 'working' to fix the problem they created. What? This is like getting a lecture on marriage fidelity from Tiger Woods.
The spineless RINOs are complicit in this mess. They had no problem abandoning their greatest hero (Ronald Reagan) when it seemed to benefit them. Here' s hint, Conservatives have principles, and the RNC has none .... NONE. There is nothing the RNC will not cede; be it healthcare (they have their 'own' plan; something that NO ONE wants - yet these retards are writing their own plan!?!?). Border to be closed? Yup, trust them ... they mean it THIS time, it's not like when they said they would close the border over 20 years ago.
If you don't like the message, fix the problem. Billy just wants to shoot the messenger. This is like blaming the mailman for the overdraft notices that find their way into your mailbox.
The CPAC speech was very well done.
Especially comparing the depression of 1920 and the Great Depression.
I like Levin, I really do. He has a grasp of politics, economics and history that far surpasses most on the radio. But at some point he is going to have to choose between party orthodoxy and conservative orthodoxy. You can’t maintain that you are anti-statist and praise Bill Bennett without being dishonest on one of the points. And his dislike of Beck seems to have its genesis in the fact that Beck is rather popular but hasn’t paid his dues. That is another misnomer that must be discarded. Picking favorites and candidates based on those that have paid their dues gave America Ford in ‘76, McCain in ‘08 and will likely lead to Romney in ‘12.
Beck could not possibly be as wrong as Bill Bennett.
Levin and Hannity hate Beck, and I don’t know why. But Levin was critiquing a different speech than most of us heard and appears to reflect the very denial Beck was speaking about. Beck wasn’t suggesting we surrender. Rather, he is suggesting that we stand on our own two feet and do the tough work of putting the country back together.
Mark, I know you read this forum. Your comments aren’t even applicable to the speech that we watched on Saturday and the fact I’m saying this - even if you did watch the speech, which judging from your comments I have some doubts about - should get you to reevaluate your critique. You and Sean for whatever reason hate Glenn. Get over it! We need his voice.
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