Unemployed at last.

In the end the medium is the message, and the medium of Glen Beck was hate. Not to mention naked greed. The distribution channel was Fox. No surprise there.

One could have hoped that the half of America’s political system that lost the election would have accepted its loss, and worked on better policy. But with all the energy of the Glenn Becks of the world, why bother?  Absent choherent policy, incoherent hate keeps the Republican ball bouncing. Until as one Fox propagandist put it, something could ‘stick’ to the ‘teflon’ president that could bring him down.

Frustrating as it might be for the Hannity’s of the Fox ‘verse’, the timing is not with them. The timing works against them when the unemployed, the near homeless and the weight of what remains of America’s middle class is being crushed by the consequences of Republican policy.  And in plain terms, a person has to be just plain stupid to cut themselves off from their revenue while increasing their expenditures. Which is exactly what the Bush tax cuts did.

Stupid is as stupid does, to paraphrase the movie.

Mad as Beck

Bill Buckley was a lion of the right unlike few the world has seen.  His  intellect was a force of nature and relentless in pointing out weakness in liberal thinking. So confident was Buckley he would on a weekly basis both in print and on television engage with the strongest minds of the right for a political skirmish that could only be described as must see political theater. Always polite, always respectful but devastating non the less to those arguments raised against his conservative principals . Respected and admired by friend and foe for those principled arguments, Buckley elevated the public discourse not to mention the conservative brand.

And so when Bill Buckley saw the usurpation of the conservative  brand by the craziest in society he spoke out decisively.  Buckley’s action in part prepared the way for the right to take the presidency under Regan.

Today the right faces an even great threat from the likes of Glenn Beck.  Becks access to mass media allows his voice to be injected into society in ways the Birchers of Buckley’s day could never have hoped for. Described variously as ‘crazy’, ‘delusional’, ‘dangerous’ and worse, Beck has successfully reanimated that long dead corpse of the John Birch movement. A movement that Buckley so long ago exposed and put to rest. And in the process is redefining the conservative brand.

Buckley is now sadly gone. Who now will stand up for conservative values?  Who now will protect the intellectual and principled conservative values from the mad who usurp the brand for their own profit?  And make no mistake, Beck is making a fine living reanimating the fringe right with his ‘communists everywhere’  tactic’s and his pseudo intellectual shows. Becks brand of ‘say anything do anything’ to make a buck  hate speech will continue as long as he perceives a buck to be made.  If the conservative party loses every seat Beck will be richer than ever.

Republicans seem unable to find their modern Buckley. The lack of a powerful intellectual voice on the right brings into question if the party even has an intellectual foundation any more.. Or perhaps the absence of a reaction is a case of short term tactics, an ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ approach. If the later it is a dangerous approach. With Beck attempting to redefine conservatism, remaining silent will only alienate the majority of Americans, both left and right.

Beckola…

Oh come on Glenn…really…giving a little kid health care is not the end of yours or anyone’s liberty. I mean seriously. The only ‘turning point’ is the end of political fraud by your clients, the end of the medical insurance fraud by your clients, a whole lot less suffering and reduction of the national deficit.

You’ve managed to find a demographic that prefers an uneducated ignoramus rather than facts.  Your money train will go on Glenn.  You will never be discovered for your own lies. And the poor, and the sick will stop suffering. It’s a win win situation.