Celebrity Worship Syndrome and the GOP

[GoLeft TV]

This is something I wrote a while back, but wanted to share with everyone. From my blog at www.cynicalofsociety.com. The full story is available here - http://cynicalofsociety.com/2010/09/celebrity-worship-syndrome-and-the-gop/

You have to hand it to the GOP – Nobody sticks by their friends better than a Republican. Even if they’ve never met the person, they will defend to the death that person’s “honor.” At first thought, I had deep pangs of regret that those of us on the left lack this unrelenting solidarity. But once I started examining the depth of this commitment, it became too creepy to envy.

This past week while screening calls for Ring of Fire, I received a call from a man in Arizona who said that he wanted to refute the claim that the right wing was using incendiary rhetoric. He decided that he didn’t want to wait until he got on the show, so he started to debate me. Nothing wrong with that – There’s nothing I love more than politically bitch-slapping a Republican. But when he asked me to name a specific right wing talker that was inciting hate and violence, and I responded with Glenn Beck, he became absolutely enraged. The kind of rage that you would expect if you insulted someone’s wife or mother. He proceeded to call me a liar, a coward, a “typical liberal” (whatever that is supposed to mean,) all the while not letting me get a word into the conversation. By the time he finished his tirade in defense of Beck, the man was literally almost in tears. His voice was quivering and his breathing was getting a little too heavy for comfort. At this point, I placed him on hold where he stayed for the next 30 minutes before I finally disconnected him.

Why did he feel the need to get so defensive about Glenn Beck? If he disagreed with me, he could have simply said that and provided facts to try to prove me wrong. Instead, he completely lost his mind and was so offended over my comments that he became irrational and incoherent. I couldn’t help but think that a normal, intelligent, and level-headed human being would not have reacted in this manner. Unfortunately, normal, intelligent, and level-headed humans seem to be a dying breed.

Here’s some more evidence of this unnatural desire to defend those people who wouldn’t acknowledge these freaks if they saw them on the street. My good friend Beau Friedlander recently posted a satirical piece on The Huffington Post offering any reader who could provide a sex tape featuring Glenn Beck $100,000. While the offer was a joke, and there haven’t even been any rumors of Beck having a sex tape (or sex, for that matter,) it was meant to show that the Left can use the same dirty tricks as the Right, and this tactic is actually necessary in order to win elections. There is no high ground in politics anymore. The post was subsequently pulled from Huffington and Beau wrote another piece offering an apology to Beck. Here are some of the comments he received from rabid right-wingers:

westtexasmare -
Was this an apology to Beck? Read like a justification for your bad writing and behavior. Have a very nice life and FLIP THIS HOUSE!!!!! CAN YOU HEAR US NOW????

James M 1985 -
I wonder if you will offer this apology to Beck in person, though I doubt you could even look him in the eye after what you did…I guess that means Beck was wise to wear body armor to his rally last weekend. This kind of talk sickens me…

ChicagoJohn -
I’d love it if people would stop hiding behind the “Free Speech” issue while simultaneously trying to shut up Glenn Beck…the left has tried suppressing free speech more then any entity in my lifetime. Its truly frightening to see the left try to stifle any critic of the president.

Those are just a few of the choice comments Beau received. It seems that you can’t say anything negative about a conservative “icon”, even on a progressive news website, without the rabid right attacking you at every turn. If they hate it so much, then why go there? I don’t spend my time commenting on conservative news sites just to be angry. There’s absolutely no logic in that. Then again, logic has never been a trait associated with the GOP.

The full story is here - http://cynicalofsociety.com/2010/09/celebrity-worship-syndrome-and-the-gop/