Posted on 09/25/2009 7:33:20 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
When FOX News host Glenn Beck said during an interview with Katie Couric this week, “John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama,” his comments made headlines. Beck explained that “McCain is this weird progressive like Theodore Roosevelt was.” Beck laid out this view in better detail on his television program earlier this month:
I am becoming more and more libertarian every day, I guess the scales are falling off of my eyes, as I’m doing more and more research into history and learning real history. Back at the turn of the century in 1900, with Teddy Roosevelt—a Republican—we started this, “we’re going to tell the rest of the world,” “we’re going to spread democracy,” and we really became, down in Latin America, we really became thuggish and brutish. It only got worse with the next progressive that came into office—Teddy Roosevelt, Republican progressive—the next one was a Democratic progressive, Woodrow Wilson, and we did … we empire built. The Democrats felt we needed to empire build with one giant global government ... The Republicans took it as, we’re going to lead the world and we’ll be the leader of it … I don’t think we should be either of those. I think we need to mind our own business and protect our own people. When somebody hits us, hit back hard, then come home.
Beck is trying to explain how Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican precursor to what historians call “liberal internationalism,” a foreign policy view that contends the role of the U.S. is to intervene around the globe to advance liberal objectives. This progressive doctrine, later called “Wilsonian” after Woodrow Wilson, was intended to “make the world safe for democracy,” to quote our 28th president. Wilsonian globalism was embraced fully by George W. Bush, and as Beck notes, was also a guiding philosophy for his could-have-been successor, John McCain. In their application, there is very little difference between “neoconservative” foreign policy and “liberal internationalism,” and both views are progressive in origin.
Preferring to keep his audience in the dark on such distinctions, neoconservative talk host Mark Levin was angry that Beck would dare shine a light on them. Said Levin this week:
McCain is no conservative… but to say that he would be worse than a president who’s a Marxist, who’s running around the world apologizing for our nation, who’s slashing our defense budget… to say he would be worse is mindless… incoherent, as a matter of fact. There’s our 5 PMer on FOX.
It should be noted that Beck’s FOX News program airs at 5 PM EST.
Who else does Levin consider mindless? He continues:
I don’t know who people are playing to; I don’t know why they’re playing to certain people. Ron Paul’s another one ... this fascination with Ron Paul. Ron Paul, who blames America! American “imperialism,” quote, unquote, for the attacks on 9/11. How can any conservative embrace that? And yet the 5 PMer does.
For eight years, hosts like Levin and even Glenn Beck promoted full-blown neoconservatism without ever calling it by that name. For these mainstream pundits, conservatism simply equaled neoconservatism, and during the Bush years there was no talk of limited government, no concern about “socialism” and no real worries about anything else, other than the War on Terror. The Republican Party was a single issue party; Ron Paul was considered crazy, Joe Lieberman was considered cool—and government exploded.
But much to Levin’s chagrin, that impenetrable neoconservative unity no longer exists. Unlike Levin, Beck now claims “the scales are falling off of my eyes,” and he now questions old assumptions about foreign policy, the value of the GOP, the worth of the two-party system, or even if McCain would have been any better than Obama. Conservative columnist George Will once cheered Bush’s foreign policy, but now thinks it’s time to bring the troops home from both Iraq and Afghanistan. When Sarah Palin spoke in Hong Kong this week, a Wall Street Journal headline read, “Palin, Sounding Like Ron Paul, Takes on the Fed.” Few conservatives get excited by Joe Lieberman anymore. But many are starting to talk like Ron Paul.
The attacks on Beck by Levin are a reflection of what’s happening on the American Right as a whole, where the old fools’ game of merely corralling grassroots conservatives into the Republican Party is suffering from a severe shortage of fools. I’m not saying that Beck is an all-around, reliable conservative figure, nor do I believe the Republican Party is going to start seriously listening to Paul in the future, but there are at least now, finally, tiny slivers of truth making their way into the mainstream, thanks in no small part to a handful of celebrity truth-seekers, no matter how eccentric or inconsistent they may be.
And if there’s one thing we can be sure of—there would be no tea parties, no town hall protests, no marches on Washington, no questioning foreign policy, no attacking the Federal Reserve, no new-and-improved Glenn Beck and no new respect for Ron Paul—if John McCain had won the election. The neoconservative agenda would have continued, undisturbed, and according to plan. And something tells me Mark Levin would have preferred to keep it that way.
I’ve heard Beck specifically say that a third party is not the way to go.
Levin appears to be trying to take over Savage’s role in a much more complete manner.
Up until now I have thought that shrewed, because Mike was courting the left too aggressively.
But THIS aspect of Mike’s act is something that Mark does well to avoid.
Reagan’s 11th commandment- NEVER criticise other conservatives...
Something tells me Jack Hunter doesn't listen to Mark Levin's radio program.
Isn't a Neo-Conservative a 'hawkish' Jewish Conservative?
Neo this, Neo that. I get so confused, which doesn't take much.
Is 'Neo' just code for Jew?
I was thinking more about the DEMS. Mike is killing himself.
“nutbar” is a good description for Beck. I could go farther, but will opt to sit back and watch him implode. Beck is brilliant at times, but it is fleeting...
It’s time, I think, to vote all the old school OUT and bring in some real conservatives. Any out there????
McCain would have been a Judas Goat
Leni
I agree. I think hate is too strong a word.
He does not push a third party.
He says over and over that we should vote for the person, not the party. That government has become corrupt and that voting dim or rino will not solve the problem. We must vote for the person with ethics. All that means is split ticket voting, split as many ways as required.
Perhaps you don't know that our founders were vehemently opposed to the political party system and predicted that it would bring about an end to democracy. That certainly appears to be what is happening and why it is happening.
As for the Ron Paul digs, give me a quote where Beck says vote for Ron Paul.
Ron Paul may not be the right person for the presidency, but he is far from a fool. Go back and read what he said during the last election. His comments on our economy and our monetary system reads like today's newspaper.
‘”Thou shalt not speak ill of any other republican.”’ RR
Levin is attacking Beck[Not a Republican]. This was always gonna happen.
Crowd control. Gotta get the lemmings ready for 2010. Can’t go third party, etc.
When do you think it would be an opportune time to try and get a third party in office? It has to start sometime, doesn’t it?
Instead of Levin focusing his energy and resources on trying to bash and discredit Beck, he should put his differences aside and unite with the likes of Beck, O’Reily, and Limbaugh to defeat the true enemy, the Progressive Marxists that are taking over the country.
I listen to Levin almost daily and enjoy his energy and passion for the movement. But this childish bickering has to stop. Beck stated on his show this morning that he doesn’t agree with everything Rush and Bill O’Reily say, but they have agreed to focus on the larger picture. Schisms in the Conservative movement will only strengthen the Progressives.
To quote a famous American, “Unite or Die!”
Beck made a too-cute-by-half comment and it was painful to watch him try to defend the indefensible. Too much damage is being done by Obama and his majority congress without guarantee of a reversal in future elections.
Futhermore, Beck is too heavy handed lumping Republicans into the same basket with democrats. The only chance for conservative government rests within the GOP.
But enough already. UNITE and stop the hemorrhaging.
BTTT, bflr, TSN ping and all that good stuff
I admit hes done well with investigative reporting but most definitely has emotional problems.
ping
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