Glenn Beck of Fox News – Dangerous Rodeo Clown

At a recent social event in the community where I live, a neighbor came to me to engage in a conversation about “taking back our country”. I was speechless for several seconds (a miracle for blabber-mouth me) and responded to her comment with a question, “Why do you think our country is lost? Is it because you are not happy with having a black president?” She was quick to assure me this wasn’t it (but a few minutes later indicated she was one of those who think he may not be a legal American citizen or aka…a BIRTHER!!!) My neighbor is a lovely, educated woman and was so earnest in her concern that I didn’t have the heart to grab her and scream, “Are you nuts?” I tried to explain the birth certificate thing has been debunked and debunked and debunked and she can see it all over the web if she doesn’t believe me. It was, like Congressman Barney Frank said recently, engaging my dining room table in conversation – pointless. She went on to say she was concerned about all the big businesses and lobbyists who seem to have taken over Washington. I agreed with her take on this issue, but pointed out that Conservative Republicans are the party of big business and part of their platform is “less Government”, thus are one of the main reasons we ended up in the horrible financial meltdown mess last year due to the lack of regulations in financial markets. Of course, she didn’t see it that way. (the dining room table again?) Then she said something that explained a whole lot about our conversation. She made a comment about Glenn Beck and how she didn’t agree with everything he said, he was a very intelligent man and usually made very good points. SERIOUSLY???? I looked at her with my mouth hanging open…”He’s certifiably crazy – just like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, etc.”, I responded. She wasn’t having any of it. (dining room table!)

People – Glenn Beck is a self-described “rodeo clown”, as quoted in an interview in the “New York Times”:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/media/30beck.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

"Mr. Beck says he believes every word he says on his TV show, and the radio show that he still hosts from 9  a.m. to noon each weekday.

He says that America is “on the road to socialism” and that “God and religion are under attack in the U.S.”  He recently wondered aloud whether FEMA was setting up concentration camps, calling it a rumor that he as unable to debunk.

At the same time, though, he says he is an entertainer. “I’m a rodeo clown,” he said in an interview,  adding with a coy smile, “It takes great skill.”

And like a rodeo clown, Mr. Beck incites critics to attack by dancing in front of them."

However, unlike a rodeo clown, whose job is to protect the cowboy from the angry bull, Beck waves a red flag in front of the bull to stir it up for the purpose of having the bull attack the cowboy. I think, in my humble opinion, he goes home at night and laughs his ass off about how stupid people are to believe the crap he’s spewing. He’s like some of those evangelical televangelists (without the moussed, Aqua Net sprayed pompadoured hair and gold thrones). He stands up and spews his unsubstantiated, unproved, unsupported rhetoric, gets people all riled up, including some of our most vulnerable – our senior citizens, and then rubs his hands together in glee at the high ratings and excessive money he’s making! The under-informed and Fox News obsessed are like sheep. They never question any of this crap. Beck will, however, back away and run screaming in denial, if some nutcase out there takes his garbage as truth and takes to the streets with guns. Witness the crazies carrying weapons to healthcare reform events! I’m a second amendment supporter and think we all should be allowed to own weapons, but in a responsible way.

When are the grown-up conservative Republicans going to come out from under their beds and start calling these nut cases out? Maybe there aren’t any “grown up” Republicans left.