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.
Bingo. I really don’t think Beck knows what he is. He was a conservative for the longest time that I can remember on radio. At least that’s what he described himself to be.
Remember, this guy was at CNN HLN last year at this time with almost no following.
Then in the last year or so, with his success at FOX, he’s all over the place - independent conservative, libertarian, Hillary voter, etc.
He’s entertaining and has done some great work with Jones, ACORN, etc. But I don’t trust the guy like I do Rush or Levin (or even the broken record little ol Sean Hannity).
I don’t think your interpretation is off. I think it’s right on the money.
I have to agree with Levin, McCain, as much as I don’t like him, could not have been as bad as the Marxist we now have who has thrown the constitution into the garbage.
It should also be noted that the author, Jack Hunter, appears to be another Ron Paul follower.
For those who don’t know, Ron Paul’s followers decided last year they would infilitrate the GOP, use the resources while contributing nothing, weaken the party further for a complete takeover of it.
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=111402
http://redstateeclectic.typepad.com/nebreprev/2008/03/can-ron-paul-su.html
Beck has his good points, but I’ve never been that big of a fan of his and now, even less.
Levin annoys the crap out of me. He throws a hissy fit every ten minutes; I don’t understand how someone with his intelligence can be so party-oriented, esp. when it was the “party-over-country” mentality that dragged the republicans down to begin with.
Beck may be a bit of a drama queen, but he is sharp, clear-eyed, and he works his ass off to organize conservatives and to further the interests of my country. We need more like him.
Ha, is it any wonder why we on the Savage thread referred to Levin as Savage Jr., now others can finally see what we’ve known all along about him.
I agree. But they need to get their names out there.
I've listened to Levin since he substituted for Hannity, and then got his own show. I'm reading his book. But he is diminishing himself with this constant, childish carping about other conservative talk hosts. Before Beck, it was Michael Savage he obsessed over, or Michael Weiner as Levin so loves to say.
And this whining about others is becoming an ever larger part of his show. Levin has had great success and has contributed greatly to the conservative cause, but he's beginning to piss it away with this constant, and mostly pointless, and mostly likely jealousy based, sniping at other conservative hosts.
We don't see Rush doing this. He communicates with both Levin and Beck, and appears on their shows periodically. Levin should shut up for a time and observe Rush's example in this regard.
Look, folks, after years of being a conservative activist I can tell you that there is indeed a richness of diversity within our movement. There are traditional conservatives like me. There are libertarian conservatives. There are neo-conservatives. There are economic conservatives there are social conservatives there are religious conservatives. There are Ron Paul and Ayn Rand conservatives, there are JBS conservatives, there are Ronald Reagan/ Barry Goldwater/ Jesse Helms conservatives (like me) there are Rush Limbaugh conservatives and Glenn Beck conservatives. I personally like Mark Levin the best on radio and as far as Fox is concerned, it is a tie between Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. There are many other types of conservatives as well—some prefer Sarah other prefer Bobby. But the point is this: Given the fact this country is currently being ruled by one party Marxist dictatorship where young school children are required to sing praises to the Dear Leader, this is no time to be squabbling among ourselves over petty differences. And please let me quote to you something I got from Rush Limbaugh’s website: (9/15/09)
“Beware, folks a third party will re-elect Obama and the Democrats.”
No truer words have ever been spoken!
I agree that Mark is a really smart guy, but I never thought of him as rational... and that's why it's fun to listen to him. ;-)
Now that democrats won in two landslides Levin is suddenly concerned with lack of freedom. But for 7 years while Levin promoted a holy war at any cost (and listen to his drumbeat), anyone questioning our loss in freedom was called a traitor (effectively) . Truth is, Him and GWB destroyed our #1 world power status through bankruptcy of both money and of public opinion, electing democrats. He acted like his drumbeat will somehow change majority opinmion of Bush/McCain/Republicans.
Interesting. You seem to post only about Republicans criticizing other Republicans, or dirtbags like Latimer (another “conservative”) trying to make money by lying about Bush allegedly criticizing Sarah Palin. Are you a troll?
Levin disagrees with Beck on something. Big deal. Conservatives are not ideological robots like liberals. Free men discuss and disagree while always remaining in tune on what counts, as grownups should. Besides, Levin is right on this one IMHO. Isolationism is simply unrealistic today. Beck is a great guy but he gets carried away at times. The fact that they’re trying to pit him against other conservatives means that he’s doing something good. We love Glenn but unlike liberals we have a brain of our own. I understand it comes as shocking news in certain quarters.
Again: are you a troll?
I never cared a whole lot for Savage but he was entertaining at times. They took Savage off here and put levin in that time slot. After listening in I have to say....please put Savage back on...lol
Strangely, Mark Levin LOVES Flap Jackson in the Morning this Morning.
Freegards
I agree, attacking each other is petty. But, I do understand what he is trying to say.
My concern with Beck is that he is a novice at the investigation of political philosophy. Any politician or Leader can at any point in time be falted with wrong decisions.
I have never engaged in hero worship of personalities.
Point: During the interview with Couric, she made the remark, asking Beck about the photo of Obama “in Black Face” inferring it was a racist slam. Beck never even responded to this, letting her assertion stand. Everyone knows it is a variation on the JOKER.
Sometimes personalities become blinded by their own success.
Rush has been consistant, and has been thru the hero worship thing. He I believe understands his job is awaken people and keep people informed.
My expert analysis is that Levin is cerebral while Beck is emotional. They just don’t understand each other.
Yep, like writing a book titled "Liberalism Is A Mental Disorder", that's definately courting the left. It's true that Savage doesn't like Bush and the Bushbots, but that certainly does not mean that he's a liberal. It was a confused Bush, unable or unwilling to defend himself and his policies, and a ball-less Republican Senate that led us to Obama and the Democrat senate. These weak kneed RINOS simply shit on true conservatives so often that they couldn't even drag themselves puking and screaming to vote for McAmnesty, who stood shoulder to shoulder with "0"bama on the "torture" issue, closing Gitmo, amnesty for 20 million illegal invaders, anti-2nd Amendment. And remember, John McSpain recently said he would be willing to SUPPORT Barak Hussein Obama's government takeover of health care.
John McCain is a leftist Trojan Horse, too cowardly to come right out and admit it. That s.o.b. brought Sarah Palin into the limelight, then when he lost the election his campaign turned on Palin like Benedict Arnold as soon as they realized she was becoming popular enough to be President herslef one day. The McAmnesty campaign people "leaked" out all forms of sleeze on Palin, one of them going so far as to say he saw her naked, coming out of the shower, as he and others waited for her. This McCain scum said he was "taken aback" by the alleged nudity. Furthermore, on two separate occassion McCain publicly stated that he's considering leaving the Rep. party to become a Democrat. It was McCain's utter friggin incompetence and his lack of balls to attack Obama's friendship with Bill Ayers et al that gave us Barak Hussein Obama for President.
Like I said, many conservatives simply could not vote for this prick, know ing he's a two-faced Leftist with "R" in front of his name to veil his true face. F-ck McCain, I never liked that s.o.b., and neither did Rush Limbaugh, who worked vigorously to get McSpain dumped from the Republican Presidential nominees. Beck is right.
Levin seems far better-educated than Glenn. But he is abrasive, with that headache-inducing New York accent, of which the best that can be said is that it is not as bad as Savage's, who has the same problem . Unless you are a NY, NJ person, about 15 minutes is all that is bearable before you want to wack'em up the side of the head. (Hannity has a mild case. 20 minutes,) Great book, Mark. Lousy act.
Glenn is a real smooth old-time radio guy (like Rush), and it's obvious he is just catching up with the required reading. OK, he slept through Civics in HS, But, he's on the money. The proof is that listeners get off the couch and march. They write their representatives. They ask questions. And he's funny, which Levin ain't never going to be.
Great fight. Hope they win!
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