Glenn Beck in Washington: Preaching the gospel of Mammon and militarism

[Hannah Bell]

Beck, who has described himself as a “rodeo clown” and entertainer... reinvented himself for Saturday’s appearance at the Lincoln Memorial. He came before the crowd as the nation’s preacher-in-chief, promoting a gospel of Mammon, Americanism and militarism that reflects the very direct interests of the powerful financial figures who have turned the former drug addict into a multi-millionaire...

Perhaps the most outrageous pretense of the event was that it somehow had “reclaimed the civil rights movement...” The association of King with a rally glorifying militarism was perhaps the greatest obscenity. “What is it that America still believes in?” Beck asked in his opening remarks. “Our military.” A year before his assassination, King denounced the Vietnam war, accusing Washington, in terms that are fully applicable to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, of fighting “on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell for the poor.”

While right-wing populist movements in America have a long history of wrapping themselves in the flag and the bible, they have also tended to advance definite economic and social policies that at least invoked the interests of the common man... When he first announced his planned Washington rally, Beck had promised he would use it to present “The Plan,” which he promised would provide “specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps” to found “a new national movement to restore our great country.”

During his speech Saturday, he attributed his decision to do no such thing to what he described as a conversation he had had with God. One could be forgiven for believing that rather than the divine word of God, Beck was responding to instructions from his more temporal lords: Murdoch, the right-wing Scaife family foundation and the other billionaires and corporate entities that bankroll FreedomWorks and the so-called Tea Party movement that played the principal role in organizing the rally. Instead of policies, principles and action steps, Beck offered reactionary bromides, telling the crowd, “The poorest among us are still some of the richest in the world… and yet we don’t recognize it...We all must realize how nice we have it here, in spite of our problems,” added Beck, who resides in a $4.5 million dollar mansion in New Canaan...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/beck-a30.shtml

[madmax]

1. What size do think he wears?

We need to order the white jacket with the cute little straps in the back. I know - not funny. Alarm bells should be ringing. He's crazy like a fox.

I was in South Carolina visiting and only caught part of his idiocy on TV.

God help us! The man is certifiable but, what upset me the most were the glazed, crazy looks on the faces of the crowd. Just sent chills through me. I was reminded of the quote, 'When Fascism comes to America it will be wearing the flag and carrying a Cross.'

[hfojvt]

2. nice article, until the end

when they closed with some 3rd party b.s.

Was the author's name Hemingway, I wonder.

[saigon68]

3. figures who have turned the former drug addict into a multi-millionaire...

[blindpig]

4. It was a massive FAIL

The numbers were not there, Beck's performance was flaccid and lame, if he were a rodeo clown he would be fired.

[socialist_n_TN]

5. Mammon, Americanism, and militarism............

All basic Biblical beliefs....... NOT!

This kind of bullshit is why capitalism is actually EVIL, not just a wrong headed economic system. To bring any sort of basic fairness to the majority of people in this country on a long term basis, capitalism as a system must be destroyed and a stake driven through it's evil heart, so that it never rises again. It's Satanism, pure and simple. Simply Evil, with a capital "E".