Due to my long-term interest in politics I’ve become aware of a great deal of political figures who may or may not be shady characters. Many of them I don’t care for — this is especially true of the commentators. People who do nothing but talk, people who make their career on the missteps of others.
One person I’ve never liked is Glenn Beck. He always struck me as a phony (ironically the same way Trump does), a person saying what everyone wants to hear. He quickly latched onto the Tea Party when it became big (while he wasn’t hawking seeds). He just couldn’t help himself — this was a movement he could exploit, and he dove on it like it was a money tree. But all the while he came across as judgy, as being hokey like a televangelist. Every day I expected to hear he got caught up in some scandal involving a prostitute and a monkey, but it hasn’t happened.
Well, for the last few months he has taken a weird stance on immigration, going further down the compassionate but stupid path than Jeb Bush. One big, annoying mistake a lot of people do when there is a crisis is to say, “We have to do something! It doesn’t matter whether or not it works, as long as we do something!” It’s like the mumbojumbo muttered on Star Trek — the science doesn’t work, but hey, if we reverse the polarity of the waveform…
Artist’s rendition of Beck
Beck is that type of buffoon, and he’s bought and drank a whole lot of his own koolaid.
This week, he has accused Tea Party supporters of Donald Trump of being racist. While I’m sure there are racists in both groups (and that the Venn diagram overlaps), that’s just foolish. To say it really was about Obama being black is a complete betrayal of everyone on that side of the aisle. Yes, nobody wanted to pay less in taxes before Obama. That’s why no politicians ever ran a successful campaign to lower taxes and a presidential candidate would never say something silly like “Read my lips: No new taxes.”
I mean, what kind of world would that be?
What else did the Tea Party oppose out of sheer racism? Oh yeah — single payer healthcare. Yeah, nobody was ever against that before Obama. Same for gun control: we gun owners only want to keep our guns, to be bitter clingers, because Obama is black. It has nothing to do with our rights as citizens.
The problem with that accusation is that it’s a trump card for the small minded. Almost any time someone accuses another of being racist (or sexist, or homophobic, or misogynistic) it’s because they lack the ability to debate the actual issue. The words get used far more often than people actually deserve them, and it’s often over a simple disagreement or difference of opinion. Not everyone supports unfettered illegal immigration. The only way to look at that statement and assume racism is to assume only one race is committing the crime of illegal immigration. In that case who is the racist?
We have record unemployment. Record people out of the work force. We have record debt, and our debt to GDP ratio is… a record level for this country. We are out of money and borrowing money from others to hand over to other people. Americans are out of work, Americans are in personal debt because of the financial situation. But we’re supposed to be A-okay with millions of people coming here when there aren’t enough jobs as it is?
Seriously, Beck? That’s your argument?
You’ll note this sort of foolishness is being heavily supported by people *with* jobs. People with a lot of money (Beck made his millions before turning on the right). People who live in gated communities and don’t have to deal with the hoi palloi anyway. Even if one in a million illegal immigrants is a criminal… that one in a million isn’t going to bother Beck.
Can the devil fit another traitor?
No, he’s going to murder someone like Kate Steinle. Where’s Beck’s tears for her? Where’s Obama’s phone call to her parents? Where’s the outrage over her death and the war on women?
The elites don’t care about that — it doesn’t further their goal.
Glenn Beck is safe behind his gates, Glenn Beck and his family are taken care of. He doesn’t suffer in this economy. He’s got his seeds and his gold. But people are struggling and this is just one more issue where the elites and the government are failing them. So yeah, they’re fed up.
Once again: too much government where there should be less, too little where there should be more.