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thatcrazycajunFormer CNN/Headline News bloviator Glenn Beck, who recently decided he could no longer stand working alongside such liberal pinkos as Wolf Blitzer and Christiane Amanpour, has decamped to his true natural home: Fox News Channel. Now he's trying to start a new movement to inspire hope and esprit de corps in fellow righties dispirited by the results of the last two elections, calling it "We Surround Them":
While the voices you hear in the distance may sound intimidating, as if they surround us from all sides—the reality is very different. Once you pull the curtain away you realize that there are only a few people pressing the buttons, and their voices are weak. The truth is that they don’t surround us at all. We surround them.
Below that, he lists nine separate basic principles of his proposed movement and says that if you believe at least seven of them, you're eligible to join. Let's deconstruct them one by one based on actual statements, legislation and behavior by our conservative leaders over the past couple of decades, shall we?
1. America is good.
This means always, and in every aspect of her history and government. No questioning of any of her actions, past or present, is allowed.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
Except for that stuff He said about loving thy neighbor as thyself, not committing adultery, not coveting thy neighbor's goods or wife, and not killing. Because, y'know, some people deserve to die. Especially if they hate America. And I got mine, and I want yours too.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
Unless, of course, we're trying to gin up a war for oil profits or scare people into outlawing gay marriage. Then it's okay to lie like a burlap sack.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
Unless my wife or daughter wants to have an abortion, or my son is gay and wants to have sex with another dude. Then I want government all over their damn asses.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and everyone who worked for them are of course exempt from this rule, as are all Republican elected officials. If they're Democrats or unreliable independents, throw the book at 'em.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
In fact, I want government to pass laws that make damn sure your results don't equal mine and never will.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
Of course, I don't actually want to share it with anybody, especially not poor people, which is why I don't want my tax dollars going to anything government does that even remotely resembles charity.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
Now, you godless liberal commie fag-lovers, on the other hand...you are traitors and should be silenced, rounded up and shot for pissing on America all the time.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
And I do mean me and people who think like me, not you and your left-wing fellow travelers.
Beck also lists "12 values" of his movement: "Honesty, Reverence, Hope, Thrift, Humility, Charity, Sincerity, Moderation, Hard Work, Courage, Personal Responsibility and Gratitude." How many of those professed values people with his worldview in our public life have actually shown during the past couple of decades—in their observance, rather than in their breach—is left as an exercise for the reader.
Here in Jawja, there's no question he's right about right-wingers being in the majority, Atlanta, Savannah and Macon being urban islands of blue in a sea of red; Obama and the Democrats couldn't carry this state last year even with all the other states turning their way and the massive black vote here. Nationally? That's a bigger question altogether.
ADDENDUM, 9:52 am EDT: FireDogLake has an excellent set of links here pointing out where Beck doesn't even live up to his own stated list of principles. Apparently it's "Do as I say, not as I do" time once again.
While the voices you hear in the distance may sound intimidating, as if they surround us from all sides—the reality is very different. Once you pull the curtain away you realize that there are only a few people pressing the buttons, and their voices are weak. The truth is that they don’t surround us at all. We surround them.
Below that, he lists nine separate basic principles of his proposed movement and says that if you believe at least seven of them, you're eligible to join. Let's deconstruct them one by one based on actual statements, legislation and behavior by our conservative leaders over the past couple of decades, shall we?
1. America is good.
This means always, and in every aspect of her history and government. No questioning of any of her actions, past or present, is allowed.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
Except for that stuff He said about loving thy neighbor as thyself, not committing adultery, not coveting thy neighbor's goods or wife, and not killing. Because, y'know, some people deserve to die. Especially if they hate America. And I got mine, and I want yours too.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
Unless, of course, we're trying to gin up a war for oil profits or scare people into outlawing gay marriage. Then it's okay to lie like a burlap sack.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
Unless my wife or daughter wants to have an abortion, or my son is gay and wants to have sex with another dude. Then I want government all over their damn asses.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and everyone who worked for them are of course exempt from this rule, as are all Republican elected officials. If they're Democrats or unreliable independents, throw the book at 'em.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
In fact, I want government to pass laws that make damn sure your results don't equal mine and never will.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
Of course, I don't actually want to share it with anybody, especially not poor people, which is why I don't want my tax dollars going to anything government does that even remotely resembles charity.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
Now, you godless liberal commie fag-lovers, on the other hand...you are traitors and should be silenced, rounded up and shot for pissing on America all the time.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
And I do mean me and people who think like me, not you and your left-wing fellow travelers.
Beck also lists "12 values" of his movement: "Honesty, Reverence, Hope, Thrift, Humility, Charity, Sincerity, Moderation, Hard Work, Courage, Personal Responsibility and Gratitude." How many of those professed values people with his worldview in our public life have actually shown during the past couple of decades—in their observance, rather than in their breach—is left as an exercise for the reader.
Here in Jawja, there's no question he's right about right-wingers being in the majority, Atlanta, Savannah and Macon being urban islands of blue in a sea of red; Obama and the Democrats couldn't carry this state last year even with all the other states turning their way and the massive black vote here. Nationally? That's a bigger question altogether.
ADDENDUM, 9:52 am EDT: FireDogLake has an excellent set of links here pointing out where Beck doesn't even live up to his own stated list of principles. Apparently it's "Do as I say, not as I do" time once again.
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You realize, of course,
Date: 2009-03-14 12:19 pm (UTC)While you're deconstructing......
Date: 2009-03-14 01:55 pm (UTC)Re: While you're deconstructing......
Date: 2009-03-14 02:07 pm (UTC)Re: While you're deconstructing......
Date: 2009-03-14 02:11 pm (UTC)End mini-rant.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-14 02:02 pm (UTC)Personally, I think going forward we should simply have folks eyeball anything coming out of that camp and see if it has any semblance of the truth in it, and if it doesn't? simply ignore it. The less time we spend on a rational point-by-point deconstruction of their organic fertilizer, the more time we can spend doing useful things. (They shouldn't be *totally* ignored; q.v Sun Tsu... but one should go after one's own objectives, not be reactionary to theirs.)