Posted on 03/19/2009 6:02:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Since moving from CNN to Fox News, the Glenn Beck phenomenon has become the hottest topic today among conservatives. To demonstrate his influence, he recommended an obscure book called The 5,000 Year Leap on his radio and TV show, and today it is #1 on Amazon.
The Obama election and the Democrats takeover of government has re-energized the freedom movement, and more and more conservatives are turning to Glenn Beck as their hero.
Beck actually considers himself a libertarian. I was on the Glenn Beck Show two weeks ago, and he asked all his guests -- Steve Moore, Penn Jillette, and me -- if we were libertarians. We all said yes, and he said, “So I am.” He believes in maximum liberty and strict limits on the government’s powers as enumerated in the U. S. Constitution.
The boyish, articulate Beck is a dogmatic defender of the Constitution, which he believes is being perverted by both political parties in Washington.
His top priority is to “take our country back.” His patriotic enthusiasm is intoxicating, and his show is a hit around the country.
Last Friday on the Glenn Beck Show, he announced his 912 Project and his new website, www.the912project.com. His show is so popular that the site immediately crashed. (It’s now up and running.) 912 is a play on “9-11” and refers to “nine values” and “12 principles” based on the Constitution, and in particular, his favorite book called The 5,000 Year Leap: The Miracle that Changed the World.
Who is the author of The 5,000 Year Leap? My late uncle, W. Cleon Skousen! Cleon Skousen was a constitutional scholar, an FBI agent (and special assistant to J. Edgar Hoover), author of The Naked Communist and the thousand year books about the Bible, and a devoted family man.
In politics, my uncle was passionate about the U. S. Constitution, which he felt was inspired by God and the reason behind America’s success as a nation. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he ran hundreds of Constitutional seminars around the country.
His book The 5,000 Year Leap outlines 28 reasons why the U. S. Constitution created the miracle we call America, and led the world out of agrarian poverty and into a new modern age of prosperity -- a 5,000 year leap from men plowing fields to walking in space.
Last Friday, Beck passed out to the live audience a new edition of The 5,000 Year Leap, which an introduction by him. He told the audience, “Everyone should read this book.”
Between commercials, he told me that even though he had never met my uncle (he died in 2006), Cleon's book changed his life. He said that a friend, without solicitation, sent him a copy of The 5,000 Year Leap, saying, “Glenn, I don’t know if you’ve ever read this, but it’s the simplest, easiest way for Americans of all ages to understand the simple yet brilliant principles our founders based this country on.”
Glenn read the book, and concluded: "The author [W. Cleon Skousen] was years ahead of his time. And our founders were thousands of years ahead of their time. My hope is that all Americans young and old will spend the time with this book to understand why we are who we are. The words of our founding fathers have a way of reaching across any political divide. They are words of wisdom that I can only describe as divinely inspired. They are here for us to help solve the unsolvable -- and they are the reason why we have for so long been the greatest nation on earth. But most importantly, in these pages, you will find hope." (from the introduction)
Finally, hope we can believe in.
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Mr. Skousen is a renowned financial economist, author and university professor. He has been the editor of the financial advice newsletter, Forecasts & Strategies, for 28 years. Two of his books highlight Milton Friedman's career: "The Making of Modern Economics" and "Vienna and Chicago, Friends or Foes?." Check out his latest book "The Big Three in Economics: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, And John Maynard Keynes" or "Investing in One Lesson" and "EconoPower: How a New Generation of Economists is Transforming the World." He is the producer of FreedomFest, the world's largest gathering of free minds, in Las Vegas every July.
I think the big story is he’s doing much better on Fox than on CNN. And isn’t CNN down a little since he left?
I like Beck’s ideas, but I like Beck because he is sarcastic and funny, without being over-the-top
The amazing part about Beck is that he’s self-educated on all these issues...he learns it the old fashioned way, he reads.
I noticed when O’Reilly was on Beck’s show the other day, he mentioned his Harvard education, LOL, as if that’s some sort of qualification.
Beck’s self-deprecating humor and his zany presentations let him “get away” with saying things that other news hosts wouldn’t dare. His latest excoriation of Frank (complete with his Frank impersonation...which is a hoot) is one example of him telling the truth and making it clear so that people understand.
Glenn Beck does all that and with humor.
Fox ought to bump his slot to prime time. His show is the best thing on television, period.
His over reliance on sarcasm and drama lessens him a bit in my book but overall he’s spot on. Too bad he’s a Mormon. Some rollers are unable to appreciate him because of it.
I’ve been listening to Beck on the radio for about 6 years now. I’ve seen the show once or twice. It looks like a great show, however I’ve turned off ALL TV news. I just don’t trust network TV. I can still listen to his radio program.
Glen’s style does the radio justice. Who doesn’t love moron trivia?
“I noticed when O’Reilly was on Beck’s show the other day, he mentioned his Harvard education, LOL, as if that’s some sort of qualification.”
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Ann Coulter, is another one who is in love with her Ivy League “credentials”. She, at times, even employs one’s college pedigree as some sort of worthiness measuring stick.
I’m a strident AC fan, except for that occasional chink in her armor.
24 comments so far and not one anti-Beck. I’m impressed!
Me too.
The “True Believers” haven’t tripped over this thread yet....
DVR and TIVO; great inventions
But somehow elicits the anti-Mormon responses.
AMEN!
He is spot on.
I once recall a radio show of his one day, about four/five years back, when a left-leaning caller accused Beck of being to influential and possible causing confusion through Beck's use of sarcasm/humor. The caller assumed that too many (presumably conservative) people were not smart enough to separate the sarcasm from reality and would just do the things that Beck requested, blindly, like lemming over a cliff. Beck countered [I'm paraphrasing here] "You mean to tell me that if I were to tell my listeners that eating dog turds was both nutritious and delicious, the at least some of my audience would go out and follow their pet dogs out to the back yard and give 'em a try?" The caller's take was that some people in his audience really would do just that. Eating dog turds became part of his show's theme for the remainder of the week, including a mock advertisement for dog feces.
Some of the funniest radio I've ever heard was from Beck. I don't think he's as much of a libertarian-leaner as he's like to claim but he's a definite asset to the conservative/limited-government cause.
My husband, (a programmer), is convinced that the 9/11 project website crash was due to a denial of service attack. I’m not so sure.
In all of the replies, nobody seems to have picked up on the book itself-the 5000 year leap. Read it, then give it to somebody who might benefit from it, a child, a friend, a raving lefty. The Naked Communist is pretty good but the 5K leap really weaves the constiution and the ideas behind it into action and results. When the Barakracy starts banning books, the 5K leap will be near the top of the list.
A grown man crying in high def is unbecoming. His message is solid, but his teary eyes are better on the radio.
They're trying to mock Beck - and take him down - but Beck knows what he's talking about.
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