Glenn Beck's Rally of Palingenesis. Why does "Restoring America" make me nervous?

[backscatter712]

(already posted in GD: P, reposting in GD)

Glenn Beck's Rally of Palingenesis: Why does "Restoring America" make me nervous?

Why does "Restoring America" make me nervous? Why do words like that, coupled with flag-waving and angry crowds make me more nervous?

Having watched the replays of Glenn Beck's "Restoring America" rally, let's start with what we didn't see. Glenn didn't bring his chalkboard to the rally this time. He didn't bring up his conspiracy theories, and left his Malia and Sasha impressions back on his radio show. The tea-partiers in the audience played along and left their signs home for the most part, so we didn't get to see pictures of President Obama with a Hitler mustache. After all, with the amount of publicity this rally generated, Glenn had to keep his act clean.

So what did we see? Glenn Beck has seen religion. That's nothing new, but he put a lot of emphasis on it in this rally; the subject brought him to tears (I know, shocking.) There was the usual flag-waving and adulation of the military. Also, there were heaping helpings of stories and quotes from the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and other historical figures.

But the thing I noticed the most, which gets the hair standing up on the back of my neck, and should be getting yours standing up as well, was the heavy dose of palingenetic rhetoric. Follow me to find out why...

[uncommon]

1. .....

:scared:

[FirstLight]

2. shared on FB...for sure

so true, stop laughing...they aren't...

:scared: If these freaks ever come into power, or if they start their revolution...i'm heading for Finland!

[newspeak]

3. restoring American to what?

Mccarthyism? the greedy corrupt, robber baron days? Now if they did away with the Patriot Act, re-enact Glass-Steagall, re-enact the Fairness doctrine, and get rid of the cat food commission, then maybe we'll be on the way to restoration.

[MadMaddie]

4. The days when Blacks, Gays and Women had no political

influence if you know what I mean. These people have for years tried to influence the voting process by denying certain groups the right to vote. Gerry mandering districts (TX). Identifying Hispanics as illegal (Jan Brewer) only to find out after the election that they were legal American citizens. The list goes on....

[jberryhill]

5. To the Nephites

Watch his introductory speech - he's quite clear that the original Native Americans were Israelites who came on boats. The standard Mormon history of America.

[starroute]

6. It's not just the fascism -- it's the creepy metaphors

Whenever they start using metaphors of corruption, it becomes an excuse for purging whoever and whatever is seen as the diseased element.

Whenever they start using metaphors of dishonor, it brings up images of adulterous women who have to be stoned, Taliban-style, to restore honor to their families.

Fascism was one relatively recent attempt to play on these kinds of gross-out metaphors. But the feelings of disgust and self-loathing they arouse are far older and more primitive and have regularly brought out the worst in human nature.

[robertpaulsen]

7. Today: "Restore". Tomorrow: "Purify".

I share that sense of nervousness. I understand the reticence in "going Godwin", but it is a slippery slope I see ahead. A slippery slope filled with boiling rage.