Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally

[Gowen]

Yes, but you have to work with what you are given.  The Tea Party has been kicking the RNC elites in the rear at just about every turn.  You will have the "party" candidate and then the "tea party" candidate.  The Tea party has been ousting the party candidate at just about every turn.  As it stands, they have to work with the party that most reflects their ideals.  If the movement strikes out on it's own, I see them going the way of the IAP party, Ross Perot, and a host of others under the title of "also ran."

Also, don't put it past the DNC from picking the candidate that they want to run against.  Harry reid picked Sharron Angle, Rory Reid tried to run against soon to be former Governor Gibbons (he failed there).  The ran attack ads in the primary against the candidate they did not want to run against in the general.  This is just in Nevada, see it repeated in 49 other states.

[RevDisk]

Yes, but you have to work with what you are given.  The Tea Party has been kicking the RNC elites in the rear at just about every turn.  You will have the "party" candidate and then the "tea party" candidate.  The Tea party has been ousting the party candidate at just about every turn.  As it stands, they have to work with the party that most reflects their ideals.  If the movement strikes out on it's own, I see them going the way of the IAP party, Ross Perot, and a host of others under the title of "also ran."

I have no problem with the Tea Party working in hand with the GOP Old Guard.  I'd just really prefer those hands to be around the metaphorical throats of all of the GOP statist pork-loving huge-government liberty-hating types.  The informal structure prevents a coup within the Tea Party.  So the GOP Old Guard have to try to embrace the Tea Party and 'direct' it in the proper current GOP direction (pork, police state, massive entitlement spending, etc).  With a hundred separate groups, that's a hundred different groups you have to co-opt.  That's the job of Beck, Palin and other GOP party hacks.  Co-opt as many groups as possible with BS, and maintain as much of the status quo as possible.

The nice thing is that the GOP old guard are fat, dumb and happy.  They're used to working at the top of the food chain.  Tea Party is largely working at the local level, which is exactly where they should be.  The other "third parties" were stupid.  They only try running for the major offices.  Screw that.  Take over the LOWEST offices, work your way up the food chain, removing the old rot and completely replacing it as you claw your way up.

The best part is they don't even have to win.  Just scare the RNC into doing their job.   Now, of course, the real goal of the Tea Party should be to clear house at the RNC. 

If that remotely succeeds, there will be a parallel movement in the DNC to do roughly the same thing.  Respectfully, I will decline to discuss that here. 

[Perd Hapley]

I'm not a Glenn Beck fan.  I never was a fan due to his omnipresent smugness and arrogance, but to each their own I could care less.  But I've grown less than thrilled at his involvement with the Tea Party.  He's a party hack.  I'm sure he'll do his part to gut the Tea Party like a trout and try to "bring it back into the herd". 

Maybe I haven't seen enough of Glenn Beck to understand what he's up to, but he has always seemed pretty self-effacing to me.  He seems much more wacky than hacky.  [groan]

I never bothered to listen to him, until they changed up the schedule on one of the talk stations around here a few months ago.

[Doggy Daddy]

I'm not a Glenn Beck fan.  I never was a fan due to his omnipresent smugness and arrogance

Are you sure you're not thinking of Bill O'Reilly?   

DD

[seeker_two]

Are you sure you're not thinking of Bill O'Reilly?   

DD

Only difference b/t the two is their time slots.... 

[RevDisk]

Are you sure you're not thinking of Bill O'Reilly?   

DD

I will give credit where credit is due.  Glenn Beck does seem to be a better or more discreet person than Bill O'Reilly.   That is worthy of recognition.

[Doggy Daddy]

If they ever do a movie of O'Reilly's life, Bill Murry would be perfect in the title role.   

DD

[grampster]

Here in Michigan, the various tea party groups were able to command 25% of the precinct delegates to the state Stupid Party convention.  They weren't able to do much except scare the crap out of the party regulars and put forth an alternate for Lt. Governor that was a conservative candidate for the 2nd house district for the .fed house of reps in the August primary.  The guy who got the nod in the primary for governor is a business guy, Snyder.  Very successful businessman.  He picked his running mate a 2 term rep that leans a little right of center.  Tea party activism pushed him to do that.  Snyder is a guy who's trying to grab up the independents and what few right leaning dems that he can.

Time will tell whether he is the new breed of cat politico ss he claims he is, or just more of the same wishy washy middle of the road Stupid Party hack. 

[roo_ster]

I'm not a Glenn Beck fan.  I never was a fan due to his omnipresent smugness and arrogance, but to each their own I could care less.  But I've grown less than thrilled at his involvement with the Tea Party.  He's a party hack.  I'm sure he'll do his part to gut the Tea Party like a trout and try to "bring it back into the herd". 

Smartest thing the Tea Party could do is firmly kick the GOP brass squarely in the metaphorical jimmy and assert their independence.  If they don't, they will be virtually useless within a few years.  They'll be supporting the very thing they preach against.

The Tea Party folks have been backing many a primary candidate at odds with the GOP leadership and ousting quite a few GOP incumbents at the primary level.  Not sure what else you want, as actual physical violence would be counter-productive.

Are you sure you're not thinking of Bill O'Reilly?   

DD

That's what I was thinking.  Beck is the weepy one who actually reads books.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Yeah, Beck may be a lot of things, but smug isn't one of them.  Are we sure we're talking about the right guy, here?

[roo_ster]

This article describes Beck as I seem him and see him viewed by the ruling class:
http://reason.com/blog/2010/08/27/i-like-glenn-beck-because-hes

[Perd Hapley]

http://reason.com/blog/2010/08/27/i-like-glenn-beck-because-hes

You get the impression that two weeks ago Beck had never heard of Woodrow Wilson, yet now he has figured out that Woodrow Wilson was one of the most evil people of the 20th century, and he wants to tell everybody. There's something fun about that, a performance that invites you to help fill in details and fix errors. It's certainly something you don't see anywhere else on TV, a medium populated almost entirely by people who are more cocksure about everything than I am about anything.

Pretty much.  No, he's not the brightest star in the firmament, but it's hard to escape the impression that he's earnest and he actually cares.

[gunsmith]

Beck is on our side on the gun issue, oreily hasn't been.
after heller/mcdonald he got a little better -but he doesn't get it.
Beck understands and supports RKBA. & ppl who don't like him are racist ;-)....

BTW, abc radio reported a Tea Party in washington dc. ... they obviously don't get it.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Quote
You get the impression that two weeks ago Beck had never heard of Woodrow Wilson, yet now he has figured out that Woodrow Wilson was one of the most evil people of the 20th century, and he wants to tell everybody. There's something fun about that, a performance that invites you to help fill in details and fix errors. It's certainly something you don't see anywhere else on TV, a medium populated almost entirely by people who are more cocksure about everything than I am about anything.

Pretty much.  No, he's not the brightest star in the firmament, but it's hard to escape the impression that he's earnest and he actually cares.

He's learning, educating himself.  It's fascinating to watch that process.  Some of the stuff he's discovering is old hat to those of us who've been ion the trenches a while.  A lot of it is new to all of us.

Indeed, it's also interesting that Beck is the only outlet producing anything quite like it.  Everyone else in media and politics present themselves as perfect right from the beginning.  "What, me learn something new?  I already know everything, thankyouverymuch."

[longeyes]

Beck is scary because he's actually using television the way it should be used: to educate.  That in itself is radical, especially when applied to political philosophy.  No one says the man's perfect--who is?--but in his plain American way he's doing what few people allegedly on the Right are doing, and that is to pierce the veil and actually connect the dots when it comes to the leftist network in America.  As for the history of the 20th century, how many know anything about Wilson or the Progressive movement really?  And, frankly, how could they given who controls the sum and substance of American higher ed?

[Perd Hapley]

One bone I'll pick with Beck is that we need to be reclaiming the progressive label, rather than letting the left have it and ruin it.  We've already made that mistake with "liberal." 

[sanglant]

Longeyes, TV has long been used to educate. there are other examples, but somehow i think this one is the most effective. warning page is a java nuke fire site.

[longeyes]

I meant political education that is not infused with the by now well-documented academic/liberal biases. 

[sanglant]

ahh

[Iain]

Beck is scary because he's actually using television the way it should be used: to educate.

I needed that laugh.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

The Tea Party has been kicking the RNC elites in the rear at just about every turn.  You will have the "party" candidate and then the "tea party" candidate.  The Tea party has been ousting the party candidate at just about every turn.


did i miss something?

[roo_ster]

The Tea Party has been kicking the RNC elites in the rear at just about every turn.  You will have the "party" candidate and then the "tea party" candidate.  The Tea party has been ousting the party candidate at just about every turn.


did i miss something?

Yes, it sounds like you have.

[longeyes]

Given that the average adult in America watches 35 hours of tv a week it is already the primary "education" medium in America.  Unfortunately, the education being provided is more opiate than anything else, or, at best Hamburger Helper.  Beck should be commended for attempting to use television as a political education workshop.  There's a hunger out there for what he's trying to do, cynics notwithstanding.

[Ryan in Maine]

The numbers of people at the rally has jumped 2 or 3 times. Some folks are trying to say there might have been a million in attendance. It looked more like 100,000 to me, but I'm not good at estimating crowds.

[Boomhauer]

The numbers of people at the rally has jumped 2 or 3 times. Some folks are trying to say there might have been a million in attendance. It looked more like 100,000 to me, but I'm not good at estimating crowds.

A millon is a hell of a lot of people.

100,000 is a lot more believable, I think.