Posted on 02/24/2010 4:46:31 AM PST by Walter Scott Hudson
Glenn Beck delivered the keynote address at CPAC Saturday, receiving roughly a dozen standing ovations as he utilized his trademark chalkboard to present what he called the progressive “cancer… eating our Constitution.” Beck did not constrain his criticism to the Obama administration or the Democratic party. He called out Republicans as well:
I’m so sick of hearing people say, oh, well the Republicans are going to solve it all. Really? [They are] just progressive-lite. That’s like somebody sticking a screwdriver in your eye and [you] saying, “Stop! Stop!” And somebody else pulls it out and then puts a pin in your eye. I don’t want stuff in my eyes! Stop stabbing in the eyes!
Beck also said:
The Republicans right now are giving us many of those same [progressive] choices – not all of them – but some of them. We have a guy in the Republican Party who says his favorite president is Theodore Roosevelt.
Beck went on to out Roosevelt as a progressive.
Beck compared the condition of the Republican party to that of a drunk at the end of a raucous night of debauchery. Like an alcoholic who hits rock-bottom, the Republicans must admit they have a problem before recovery can occur. This comparison, and the broader accusation of progressivism in the Republican party, has come under attack by conservative colleagues.
Rush Limbaugh said on his radio program Monday:
I would not have said that the only people who can stop Obama, the Republicans, should be excoriated for being just as bad. I don’t know how you could say, after hearing Marco Rubio, that the Republicans are just as bad as [Democrats]. It would never occur to me to say that. I don’t know what the objective would be.
Former Secretary of Education and morning talk show host Bill Bennett was more specific and derisive in a column posted at National Review Online:
To say the GOP and the Democrats are no different, to say the GOP needs to hit a recovery-program-type bottom and hang its head in remorse, is to delay our own country’s recovery from the problems the Democratic left is inflicting. The stakes are too important to go through that kind of exercise, which will ultimately go nowhere anyway — because it’s already happened (Bennett earlier cites examples like Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann).
The first task of a serious political analyst is to see things as they are. There is a difference between morning and night. There is a difference between drunk and sober. And there is a difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. To ignore these differences, or propagate the myth that they don’t exist, is not only discouraging, it is dangerous.
Both Bennett and Limbaugh misread Beck’s point. Beck clearly articulated the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. His analysis suggests a difference insufficient to satisfy principled conservatives. Beck is calling for more than rhetoric, more than speeches from individual politicians. Beck is looking for broad and consistent action. He is looking for Republicans at large to embrace principle over politics.
Scott Brown, the celebrated new senator from Massachusetts, just voted for Obama’s “jobs bill,” which has been widely analyzed as yet another stimulus package. In Minnesota, 15 Republican state senators recently went along with the Democratic majority to pass a $1.2 billion bonding bill which includes funding for volleyball courts and gorilla cages among other pork barrel projects. The actions of the GOP at large do not match the rhetoric of figures like Rubio or Bachmann. In some cases, like Brown’s, individual Republicans literally say one thing and do another. This is what Beck speaks to. This is the behavior for which he demands repentance.
Presumably, Bennett regards Beck’s message as “dangerous” because the electoral failure of Republicans means the electoral success of Democrats. Yet, this is precisely Beck’s point; it does not matter if the GOP emerges from 2010 victorious if they merely “suck less than the other guys.” Republicans need to become a true alternative to progressives. It is not sufficient to be Republican.
Curiously, Bennett cites the Tea Party movement as evidence Republicans have seen the error of their ways, as if the movement emerged from the party. As recent posts at the New Patriot Journal declare and demonstrate, the Tea Party movement is not a Republican proxy. It contains Republicans. It is not of or about Republicans. If anything, the movement has emerged in response to Republican hypocrisy as much as any Democratic policy. The movement is not about party politics. It is about principled governance and citizen activism.
This concept of principle over party seems to genuinely confuse Limbaugh. When he says he does not know what the objective of excoriating Republicans is, he demonstrates a vision obscured by a partisan lens. If you do not like Obama, Limbaugh’s paradigm demands you love Republicans. The Tea Party, like Beck, rejects that false dichotomy. Contrary to Bennett’s perception, the true danger in 2010 lies in trusting Republicans without holding them to account. Voters cannot find comfort in a slower march off the same progressive cliff.
I like Beck. He is on the right side. I just wish he would stop bashing Republicans. He gives fodder to the media. We are winning public opinion. But Beck just wants everyone to be the perfect conservative. Nothing wrong with that. We would all love for the country to suddenly make a hard right turn but they aren’t going to do that. We have to win in steps. Just like the left slowly pulled the country left, we have to pull it back to the right. But right now our main goal should be getting rid of the destructive democrats. Then we can work on our goals.
Don’t think Limbaugh would qualify as a circling shark.
Rush and Bill B are very protective of the party, fearing a splinter 3rd party which spells near-certain defeat for us.
I actually don’t think there’s an argument. Beck sees the Republican Party as half empty, Bill, Rush (and me) see the Republican Party as half full. They’ve gotten the message quite well, I suspect.
I can still hear Tom Delay in ‘06 saying, “we’ve looked and just can’t find any place to cut the budget”.
I see that Michelle Malkin is now echoing what Beck said. I guess she’ll have to be destroyed as well. [/sarc]
Good analysis. I am sick to death of the RINOs. I call our state GOP every week and remind them that I will only send $ when they give us good conservatives and I will never again vote for a RINO. I hope they are listening.
“Both Bennett and Limbaugh misread Beck’s point.”
No kidding. Unfortunately, IMO, Bennett and Limbaugh are concerned about biting the hand that feeds them. Beck, on the other hand, doesn’t give a rat’s patoot about that kind of thing. Isn’t that obvious?!!!
Rush, of course, is our hero and always will be but he has to be just a little concerned that Beck will usurp some of his power.
Bennett - I lost a lot of respect him due to the gambling fiasco - like throwing $2 million away on a gambling addiction didn’t hurt his family!!!!!!!!!!
That’s what I like about Beck so much . . . his honesty and openness.
I’ve long suspected Beck goes out of his way to position himself outside of any party to deflect criticism of him as a partisan hack. Bashing Pubbies achieves that for him and
I also think its time to stop. We’ll need adult Pubbies to save this day and we’ll need lots of ‘em.
that’s not to say I wouldn’t support a conservative dem....but there don’t appear to be any...at least in the JFK mold of the last century.
Beck is such a newbie. Republicans got the message...I dunno...before I was born. The battle against liberal Republicans has been going on forever. Instead of whining there has been no final victory (victory is always elusive, nothing is ever settled) Beck could give credit to those who were fighting when he was doing nothing.
Until he starts paying me off he'll only get the ordinary "sound bytes" I provide him regularly on the threads at FreeRepublic.
And he does lift those "sound bytes" ~ as does Limbaugh, and sometimes Levin (although he's got mostly his own stuff, heh, heh), and most assuredly Dick Morris.
In fact, Dick has read so much of my stuff, and lifted it for his books, that I think I've actually changed his mind regarding politics.
What's missing in Beck is a "smoothness filter" ~ he does need the little guy at the other end of the earpiece feeding him factoids ~ just like Rush, or any other commenter who is digging deeply into political theory and practical politics.
As far as the Tea Party Movement is concerned, there are lot of it's primary movers right here at FR ~ which is good.
What is bad is this writer using Obama-speak. Did you catch that "call out Republicans" bit? Conservatives don't use the language of the class enemy unless they intend to take it over for themselves. Neither do Republicans. On the other hand, Democrats, and most certainly their tag-along-go-along Independent cadre start slurping on the Party Line language almost immediately.
The "call out" cr*p started with the Obamistas. It's not that they invented the term ~ I've heard it many times before ~ but they began using it in a peculiar way ~ always with the implication that the target is elementally evil and knows it.
There, I've done it ~ provided a definition to the Democrat party-line terminology that we can use.
Rather than adopting it's use, we should challenge their "call outs" by treating them as gross insults, and little more than the grunts of street thugs.
Ping !
This thread is good. Beck’s speech, I feel, Should have awakened us to what the GOP has been doing (or ... NOT doing). The GOP stands in the correct place, but it is weak, and blows in the slightest wind. This is not new. The moment socialist ideas came into play, our GOP should have Slammed fists on the tables - yelled - SCREAMED out that it was wrong.
I feel that while there are good people on the GOP in DC right now, not one of them is as dedicated to the Constitution as they swore they were. Not one of them is willing to die for it anymore. Ex-soldiers there may have been, people who at one time or another had put their life on the line for it... But not anymore. They meekly “ask” for recognition.
Civil is one thing. A push-over limp-wrist is another. Liberals and Democrats have betrayed the country. RINOs just let us down.
I agree. Many people do that. They want to be liked. They want to appear to be above it all. O'Reilly pulls the same schtick. Its much more common on the left. I see it in New England all the time. Half the people in my town are too gutless to take sides. The pretend to be "independent". But none, or very few of them, are. Most are Democrats.
Nothing wrong with jobs these days ~ NOTHING!
Back is an equal opportunity basher. The republicans deserve bashing almost as much as the democRATS. “Read my lips”
This is it in a nutshell - I think this is the point Beck is trying to make. Like Reagan said, "Trust, but verify".
“I like Beck. He is on the right side. I just wish he would stop bashing Republicans. He gives fodder to the media.”
Nail+Head
You Hit it.
The great thing about Beck is he is reaching a demographic not touched by Rush, Levine, Hannity, and the rest. And that is Women, young voters, blacks and independents. But what good will it do if he turns them off to the Republicans as well?
Beck, and this goes for the Tea Party movement as well, should take the “Build It and They Will Come” approach to reaching out to the GOP, Not build a seperate house and fight them until they change.
“Both Bennett and Limbaugh misread Beck’s point. Beck clearly articulated the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. His analysis suggests a difference insufficient to satisfy principled conservatives. Beck is calling for more than rhetoric, more than speeches from individual politicians. Beck is looking for broad and consistent action. He is looking for Republicans at large to embrace principle over politics.Good post.”
Walter, you nailed it. Beck is right.
I respect Rush, but he is wrong on this one, as is Shawn and Mark Levin. Shawn I can’t stand to listen to anymore, but I catch Mark every night on the way home and I’m very disappointed that he doesn’t seem to get Beck’s point.
I don’t post much, so I’m going to change course. The MOST critical issue of all is the homosexual issue. Hopefully it was an aberration at CPAC and we will push back hard enough to get them back in the closet. It is our Waterloo as a nation. If we lose this battle and accept the homosexual lifestyle as normal, then we’ll just accelerate the path to national destruction.
“I like Beck. He is on the right side. I just wish he would stop bashing Republicans. He gives fodder to the media. We are winning public opinion. But Beck just wants everyone to be the perfect conservative. Nothing wrong with that. We would all love for the country to suddenly make a hard right turn but they aren’t going to do that. We have to win in steps. Just like the left slowly pulled the country left, we have to pull it back to the right. But right now our main goal should be getting rid of the destructive democrats. Then we can work on our goals.”
What steps did the Republicans take to create smaller government when they were in power from 2000-2006?
Good piece. As I’ve said before, we’ve been disgusted with the GOP for years. Spending, and earmarks, when they controlled both houses ought to let us know there is something fundamentally wrong with much of their thinking.
I thought Beck’s CPAC message was right on, and was glad somebody finally had the cajones to say it!
Ann Coulter shoulda been da Keynote speaker!
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