Bob Herbert on Glenn Beck:America Is Better Than This

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/opinion/28herbert.html?_r=1&ref=bobherbert

America is better than Glenn Beck. For all of his celebrity, Mr. Beck is an ignorant, divisive, pathetic figure. On the anniversary of the great 1963 March on Washington he will stand in the shadows of giants — Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Who do you think is more representative of this nation?

(snip)
Beck is a provocateur who likes to play with matches in the tinderbox of racial and ethnic confrontation. He seems oblivious to the real danger of his execrable behavior. He famously described President Obama as a man “who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”

He is an integral part of the vicious effort by the Tea Party and other elements of the right wing to portray Mr. Obama as somehow alien, a strange figure who is separate and apart from — outside of — ordinary American life. As the watchdog group Media Matters for America has noted, Beck said of the president, “He chose to use the name, Barack, for a reason, to identify not with America — you don’t take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify, with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical?”

Facts and reality mean nothing to Beck. And there is no road too low for him to slither upon. The Southern Poverty Law Center tells us that in a twist on the civil rights movement, Beck said on the air that he “wouldn’t be surprised if in our lifetime dogs and fire hoses are released or opened on us. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of us get a billy club to the head. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of us go to jail — just like Martin Luther King did — on trumped-up charges. Tough times are coming.”

He makes you want to take a shower.

[babylonsister]

1. Rec'd x 1000. "He makes you want to take a shower." nt

[butterfly77]

2. Kick,kick,kick &recommended!

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[Catshrink]

3. In summary: BecKKK is an asshole.

[Fumesucker]

4. America might be better than this but Real 'Murka (tm) ain't..

Real 'Murkans loves 'em some Glenn Bekkk.

[Pirate Smile]

12. We've always had a significant RW Conservative, Nativist segment of the population

who pull this crap and throw fits of hysteria and paranoia. They show off the ugly and hateful but they don't win in the end - although they do slow progress down, they don't stop it.

[Fumesucker]

17. They don't stop progress..

They reverse it..

I've been watching this country backtrack for thirty years and the retreat is accelerating if anything.

[niyad]

5. no, he makes me want to weep for what was the promise of this country.

not that it ever truly delivered (see "people's history of the united states) but there were times. now, however, what we see, almost without exception, is the white supremacy movement in all its hatred, bigotry and backwardness, worshiped, adored, elevated as though they were the alpha and omega of our times.

I long for their rapture--get them the hell off our planet.

[babylonsister]

6. Nah. Gene Robinson:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605519.html

snip//

Saturday night, when the event is done, the Lincoln Memorial will still be the place where King gave one of the most memorable speeches of the 20th century. People who came to the rally in search of answers will still be looking. And Glenn Beck will still be a legend in his own mind.

[Parker CA]

8. Love Gene! Absolutely nailed it. Inconsequential beneath true greatness everlasting. nt.

[malaise]

9. Two great columns

Rec

[calimary]

7. He makes me want to throw up.

It's his idiot dumb-ass racist knuckledragger followers with their 7th Century mind-set who make me want to weep for what was the promise of this country - and how far they've tried to push the rest of us away from it.

[babylonsister]

10. Amen, calimary! nt

[Pirate Smile]

11. These types of endings that relate to the violent history of the '60s always give me chills for the

present:

"But I worry about the potential for violence that grows out of unrestrained, hostile bombast. We’ve seen it so often. A little more than two weeks after the 1963 March on Washington, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan and four young black girls were killed. And three months after the march, Jack Kennedy was assassinated.

[Politicub]

13. Thank you, Bob Herbert. I never paid that much attention to Beck, but he is evil personified

and drunk on his own celebrity. He built his fame by appealing to the worst elements of our society.

In a way, it's terrifying that something like this is happening in 2010. And on the other hand, it's not a surprise at all. The bigots in society feel free to spew their hate and mock perhaps one of the most important movements in American history.

My hope is that something this provocative will remove the scales from the eyes of people to reveal how destructive a force Fox news and it's water bearers are. Clearly, some people have been waiting for a moment like this to express their true natures. I won't be holding my breath, though.

Perhaps this naked display of hate of equality will be the crescendo. Maybe it will be a dud. Or maybe pissing so boldly on such an important event in our history will mark something more sinister that's yet to come.

On edit - I agree with Gene Robinson and glad his quote is getting posted so widely. It's great to hear voices of reason during this time of insanity.

[niyad]

16. you are counting on his followers to have two brain cells that arc?

[Politicub]

18. Well, there's that.

[Golden Raisin]

19. I'm less concerned with

brain cells than I am with bullets. Beck is an inciter, a panderer to the lowest emotions and common denominators. He trades (for profit) in fear, racism and hatred while presuming to be an authority on knowing who and what a "real American" or "true patriotism" is. Someday soon, one or more of his supporters will act out violently. In my youth I lived through the assassinations of Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. For better or worse those deaths helped shape (and perhaps scarred) many in my generation. Beck seems to be doing his damndest to push a follower over the edge.

[Mimosa]

20. What does Beck mean by 'Restoring America's Honor'?

G.R. It's a bit frightening, isn't it?

What the heck does Beck mean by 'Restoring America's Honor'? When was it lost and by whom?

[dkf]

14. Yes we are...that is why we ignore the fella.

[Initech]

15. He makes me want to question this country's collective sanity.

[coeur_de_lion]

21. Oh God please

Someone explain Glenn Beck to me. Some of my (very distant) cousins have actually driven from FL to D.C. for this rally.

I've been off DU for years now. Happy that someone competent (Obama) is in charge. Not tuned in to the political scene anymore and have ignored this Beck fella.

What is his deal? Does the fact that my cousins are attending this rally mean that they are racist bastards? You know, Morans?

Please help!

[Skittles]

22. yes coeur_de_lion, your cousins are morans

absolutely

[one_voice]

23. Kick