It's On: Beck Bad For Conservatism

Okay, it's on - even if no one is watching. Joe Scarborough says Beck is bad for Conservatism. This makes two media folks identified as conservative. I'll withold comment on Mourning Joe.

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Comments

[Huey]

Some of the things which Beck said that Joe cites as being "over the top" are things with which I agree.

I agree that Obama is racist. There certainly is enough fodder to support that conclusion from his 20 year relationship with a preacher who "preached" the racist "Black Liberation" theology (and membership in that church), to his "typical white person" remark about his own grandmother, to his "clinging to guns..." statement about "fly-over" Americans, to his "Gates Gate" remarks, to his playing of the "race card" ("they'll say...did I mention he's black?) repeatedly during the campaign, to the racist people he surrounds himself with (such as Van Jones).

The DEGREE of that racism is up to debate, but not, I don't think, the EXISTENCE of it.

[Bob]

Glenn Beck is a hinge for the Left.

1. The Left wants to win in 2012. They plan ahead. See Obama,B.
2. They train a sparkling Liberal to sound Conservative. In fact they want him to sound as over the top as possible to drive ratings.
3. Beck only has ONE JOB to do for them. Assure a thrid party to split the ticket for the Democrats.

The Morning Joe is just more of the drip, drip attention for Beck. I don't recall Joe mentioning Levin or anyone boycotting Levin or Levin on the cover of Time. Arn't you suspicious of the attention given to this pparticular "Conservtive"?

[SacTownMan]

Does ANYBODY in this country (outside the White House) watch the crap at MSNBC anyway?

Beck has more folks watching him at 5:00PM than the Pravda networks have combined ALL DAY!

These asshats simply don't get it and they never will!!

Just how many liberal books are at the top of the New York Slimes Best Seller list anyway?

They can't stand the message so they just act like it doesn't exist.

That's fine it's only 14 months until the trolls will be sent crawling back under their rocks!!!

[rrpjr]

Joe Scarborough doesn't like Glenn Beck? Hmm. There's an imponderable.

[mark l.]

maybe joe can scrounge up a dead girl so that beck can decorate his office.

[dad29]

Scarborough (and a LOT of others) seem to think, from their Olympian vantage point, that Conservatives in the rest of the country are incapable of winnowing, thinking, analyzing, and deciding what is and what is NOT relevant or meaningful.

Gee. It's good to have them protecting us from all that clutter, ain'a?

That's probably why Scarborough didn't break the ACORN story. Too much clutter.

[Terrye]

Beck said that we are better off with Obama than with McCain, that is insane. It really is. He is out for himself. He hates Republicans, I have even heard this man trash Teddy Roosevelt and call him a thug for picking on Cubans for heavens sakes.

The people who went after ACORN and Van Jones, were rightie blogs on the internet, Beck just ran with it to raise his ratings. He would go after a conservative just as quickly as he would go after a Democrat. He does not care, he is all about Beck.

[datechguy]

I actually think morning Joe is good for conservatism in one respect.

As a rule conservatives are not going to be watching MSNBC anyway so when he actually defends the conservative position or challenges the liberal one it is the only time liberals hear that defense from a source that they don't instinctively reject. Mostly fiscal conservatism but it counts.

Also Mika in addition to being an handsome woman (no matter what Robert Stacy Says)does tend to give our side a fairer hearing that any other liberal in the media.

So he has his uses, as does Beck, but the movement consists of the ideas themselves. If a Rush or a Palin or even a Reagan didn't exist, conservative ideas would still be right.

[mark l.]

in a spectrum between john mccain and ross perot/ron paul, reagan was far closer to perot/paul than mccain.

look at these interest rates that the fed went with to shore up the dollar and stave off inflation in the 80's.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/data/Monthly/H15_FF_O.txt

I accept the levin argument of "lesser of two evils", but endorsing the philosophy has NOT yielded much in the way of results. Bush squandered fiscal conservatism on guys like paul o'neill, who still want to call supply side, "voodoo economics", and then replaced him with the 'uncurious' john snow. I remember the run up to the credit market collapse-
wall street was holding a gun the head of the wh-if you raise the rates, we'll stop growing, which went on for over a year and a half. Had we just tapped down a tad, moving the interest rates up, mid 2006, the financial collapse would have been cut in half.

McCain voted aginst the tax cuts of 2003. This wasn't just a simple disagreement, this is a core tenet of reaganism. In beck's defense, john mccain would have set fiscal conservatism back even further, had he been elected.

The last chance for this country is that conservatism find its fiscal representatives, fast.

[Mr. Sauce]

Some might say that AllahPundit is bad for conservatives. But why go there?

Dan's place has the best fries, anyway.

[Dan G]

Actually the more I find out about Teddy Roosevelt the less I like him, he was a Republican progressive. This is back when the two parties we divided more by geography over ideological grounds. TR wasn’t much different from Woodrow Wilson, though Wilson was a full blow racist. TR wasn’t but he was into Eugenics. Johan Goldberg’s book Liberal Fascism does a good job covering the early 20th century progressive movement.
So when Beck is pounding on some old GOP war horse like TR he's not doing it because he's a republican it's becuase he was a progressive.

[Jeff Carlson]

Beck is a Libertarian ... if they mean he is bad for Conservatism because he is running rings around the Conservative pundits then ... yes he is bad for Conservatism ...

[Lala]

Rick Moran chimes in

http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2009/09/22/conspiracy-mongering-paranoid-tv-host-is-no-conservative/

[Dan Riehl]

I don't care about Beck one way or the other, but if the libertarian conservative coalition isn't together in 2010 and 2012, it's over.

[Ad rem]

Tell that to the rinos Dan....

[Dan Riehl]

Rinos? Libertarians like Beck have no methodolgy to govern. That's the hard part they never seem to solve.

[anon]

I can only say WTF is wrong with people?!?!?

Beck is the host of TV show, he is not a politician, doesn't make policy, do research, craft legislation or anything else.

Yeah, he's a populist sorta guy who brings a lot of emotion to his show and a LOT of people have responded by watching his program, and this predictably has gotten the left into a snit and they're trying to get him taken off the air.

Same goes for Rush.

These are people who can be HARNESSED to help conservative causes, they are not spokespeople for conservative politicians, leaders of the conservative movement or anything else.

They're guys on TV/radio with the power to motivate their audiences, that's good, but should not be confused with any kind of real leadership, hence, it is stupid to debate whether Beck is good or not good for conservatives, he isn't in the drivers seat to begin with.

[Fred]

Somebody needs to be bad for conservatism. Who can show that Scarborough or the Republicans in general have done anything for conservatism?

[david]

Yes, Beck is definitely a left wing plant... that's why there are so many left wing groups attacking him and protesting companies that advertise on show. Sure, that makes sendse lmao

[Barry D]

Okay, say Joe Scarborough and other critics of Glen Beck went and watched skeet shooting at the Olympics. They saw someone shoot 100 straight (skeet is shot with a shotgun with hundreds of tiny shot pellets in a load).

They'd all be muttering to each other that, even though the competitor hit the clays every single time, something they couldn't do, and few in the world can do, that SOME of the pellets must have missed the clays. Then they'd start babbling about those pellets that missed.

Glen Beck isn't perfect (having listened to him, I think he's the first in the world who'd say so). He may use a political shotgun now and again. However, like an Olympic-level skeet shooter, he hits the targets with enough pellets to score.

As a libertarian, I like Scarborough's take on things, usually. However, Glen Beck has gotten people to think -- more people and more quickly than Joe Scarborough has, even though I like Joe's take. Picking apart one thing, or a few things, that Beck says, when he's on air several hours per day, is silly.

Mark Levin's objection is a different one: he disagrees with Beck about John McCain being "no better than Obama". I have to note that, before the last election, most conservatives despised McCain as a "RINO", a suckup to the media, and a liberal in disguise, even. Glen Beck's view is the MAINSTREAM view, or it was before the denial that many were caught up in, when having to choose between McCain and Obama.

Bottom line? Politics is a form of warfare, and the winner takes all. Philosophers don't win wars.

It's time for the right side of the aisle to recognize the different roles in winning politically. God knows the left does.

[Terrye]

Left to Beck there would be no winning in Afghanistan, no Patriot Act. And as for Teddy Roosevelt, Beck could care less if the man was a progressive, he thought he as a thug picking on latinos.

McCain would not have bankrupted the country and he would not deliberately loose a war.

[Bruce, NV]

Dan, nothing personal, but who the hell are Pete Wehner and Joe Scarborough, neither of whom is a movement conservative, to tell ME, someone outside of the Beltway and its ivory towers, who is bad for conservatism?

It's theh Wehners and Scarboroughs of the world that stock us with John McCain.

[Terrye]

david:

Extremes meet, there is very little difference between far left and far right. In fact look at Ron Paul, he sounds like Rosie O'Donnell half the time. I don't think Beck is a leftie plant, I think Beck is out for himself. No one planted him. He likes Obama right where he is. It is great for Beck's career to have Obama in the White House. He does not want the Republicans screwing that up.

[Terrye]

Bruce:

Mark Levin, the writer of Liberty and Tyranny used words like 'pathetic' to describe Beck. Levin a real honest to God conservative, Beck is not.

[Bruce, NV]

Terrye, te Republicans have screwed up everything they've touched in the last 20 years. They are just another shade of Dem. Throw them all out.

[Ad rem]

Terrye,

Are you the same "Terrye" that posts at AJStrata's?

[Dan Riehl]

Bruce, I'm no friend of the Republican elite. But Beck has always claimed to be a libertarian, not a conservative, I thought? So I fail to see what the issue is by my pointing that out.

I wouldn't want to be associated too closely with him as I suspect he will flame out. But who knows.

[Terrye]

Bruce:

I disagree. There are plenty of Republicans who are a helluva lot better than Obama and if Beck can not see that, then he is an idiot.

So, if we throw them all out, then what? Do we let Beck run things? Or someone like him, maybe Ron Paul?

[bgates]

Libertarians like Beck have no methodolgy to govern.

How about "less"? Tell people what to do less, take less of their money, spend less of their money.

[Terrye]

And what is this about 20 years? Teddy Roosevelt goes back further than that, so does Reagan. Do you really think that Beck would support Reagan if he were president today? Please, no way. Amnesty. A tax hike for social security. Military expansion and use of force over seas. Growth of government. Deficits. sure, he would. But I doubt if he will go after him now, like he would McCain. Too many of his fans like Reagan and it might hurt his ratings.

[DirtCrashr]

Who are these TV talking heads? Did they expose ACORN? Did they report on the NEA socialist agit-prop BigGovernment phone-conference? Are they representative of anything? Have Republicans done anything real and substantive besides try to be Democrat-Lite-Right?
For conservatives, McCain was just a hold-your-nose-and-vote-GOP guy. For a lot of people it was just a "Not-Democrat" vote and there's a lot of unconvinced, "republican in registration only" voters who marched on DC last weekend because RHINOS have pushed them away from the Socialism and Orwellian Big Government that Obama's Democrats represent.

[Al]

Would you expect anything different from someone who competes with Beck during the 10am to 12pm hours on radio?

[Scott Jacobs]

Someone should probably tell Joe that Beck isn't a conservative - he's a libertarian. He stands on what HE thinks, not merely what the opposition party wants.

[Bilwick]

I stopped worrying about what conservatives think since, in the early 1970s, as a young conservative, I attended a conservative think-tank and five out of six big-name conservatives at the time praised Nixon for his wage and price controls.

My only question, with regard to Beck, would be: "Is he good for liberty?"

[Bruce, NV]

Dan, personally, I can't stomach Beck. And I don't think that anyone actually sees him as a leader. But he is doing yoeman's work in exposing things now---certainly a lot more than Wehner or Scarborough have ever done. Wehner and Scarborough wouldn't know what conservatives outside of their little elite circle think. Levin I love, and will listen to what he says about conservatism. But the Scarboroughs and Wehners an Brookss and Parkers all want kumbaya conservatism where we reach across the aisle to let the Dems stab us. Hell, they hated Sarah Palin too! Palin is a lot more important than these ivory tower GOPers, which includes the first Bush, and unfortuanately, the 2nd term of the 2nd Bush, not to mention Bob Dole

[Bob Sykes]

Whatever you may wish to think about Glenn Beck, right now he is the only investigative journalist (maybe just journalist) in the whole country.

As to Joe Scarborough, anyone who takes time to watch his morning show quickly realizes he is a liberal democrat. He pretended to be a republican merely to get elected, and now that his political career is over his liberalism is unabashed.

[Bruce, NV]

And I'm willing to bet that Beck, Palin and Levin are a helluva lot more popular n Nevada than Wehner, McCain, or Scarborough.

[Flash Hole]

"Beck said that we are better off with Obama than with McCain, that is insane. It really is."

With Obama, you know exactly what you're getting, even if it does stink all to hell. With McCain, he'd be pressing his version of government-run healthcare, his version of cap and trade, and I have no doubts that all the illegal immigrants currently in the U.S. would be granted amnesty. When the consequences for all that came around, you can bet that the media would pin it all on "conservatives" and the typically ignorant American voter would just eat it all up.

[vivictius]

Well, you can say he is bad for conservatism if you want but he is doing more good for this country then any of the self proclaimed conservatives out there. At least he is getting results against the twits in washington.

[Aye Chihuahua]

"Left to Beck there would be no winning in Afghanistan."

Terrye, with that one statement you show your complete lack of knowledge about what Beck is all about and what his philosophies are.

Beck has always been 100% behind our war efforts. That support has never, ever wavered.

Beck has always said, and he repeated it yesterday, that we should "fight to win" or pull the troops home instead of leaving them in harms way.

Do you find that to be a disagreeable position?

Do us all a favor and don't misrepresent what Beck, or anyone else, believes in unless, of course, you are ready to back up your positions with facts.

[anon]

Seems to me he must be good for conservatives based only on the fact that the liberals want him off of the air...if he wasn't effective or if he was really "bad" for the GOP then the left wingers wouldn't be trying to get his show shut down.

[Pamela]

This from a guy who routinely has that anti-Semite Pat Buchanan on his show?

Puh-leeze.

[Jonathan]

The overwhelming majority of Republican and Democrat Senators and Representatives are thoroughly corrupted earmark-taking big spenders. You will know when they become serious about leadership when they put a spending-slasher like Jeff Flake in one of the top two positions. The only thing that will help the Republicans at this point is to purify themselves, tack hard right and position themselves as the responsible alternative to the economic catastrophe which continues to unfold all around us. The Center is a place of rot, decline and decay.

[Aye Chihuahua]

"But Beck has always claimed to be a libertarian, not a conservative, I thought?"

No, Dan, he hasn't.

In fact, Beck has always presented himself as a Conservative. Only recently has he said that he has some Libertarian tendencies. He has not, however, gone full bore Libertarian. He has stated over and over and over again that there are things about Libertarians that he cannot and will not embrace.

Conservatism has been corrupted by the mushy middle. By allowing ourselves to become untethered from the basic tenets of Conservatism we have strayed away from what our political philosophy has always been.

Anyone who cannot recognize that Bush took us further away from the standard is kidding themselves.

Anyone who cannot recognize that McCain would have continued that drift is being willfully ignorant.

[syn]

Joe might want to talk about why Franks, Rangel, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Murtha are bad for liberalism.

First it's Rush-hate then Bush-hate, then Palin-hate, the Beck-hate, whitey-hate rinse and repeat meanwhile John McCain's friends across the aisle continue to loot, pillage, and violate everyone and everything.

By the way, where in the hell is John McCain? Why in the hell is he not out there, front and center, going after Obama like he went after Bush.

[David Block]

Joe Scarborough is bad for conservatives. He used to be fairly decent, but he has picked up the moonbat disease from the rest of the inmates at MSDNC.

[BD57]

I'm sick of all the self-appointed gate-keepers for conservatism.

Beck is right on some issues and wrong on others. He's not been elected "Grand Poobah of Conservatives", so there's no need for the self-important pundit-types to be mounting an impeachment campaign. He speaks for himself; if people agree with him on one issue or another, its because they think he's right, not because they blindly follow The Leader wherever he goes.

Beck's a guy on radio & TV. His job is the same as Limbaugh's - grab & hold an audience so the owners of the program can charge confiscatory advertising rates. Part of the mission is to "be entertaining."

As far as conservatism is concerned - we should be glad people like Beck are around, not because they're "great spokesmen", but because they have a megaphone through which OUR voices get heard. But for the hubbub Beck, et al. have helped foment, Obama would have the votes he'd need to get cap & trade and Obamacare through.

No conservative I know of is asking Beck to write a political platform for the Republican Party. Beck's not the enemy - the types who think the way to win elections is to eject anyone who might oh-fend from the party are.

[Liberty Jane]

Joe Scarborough grates on my nerves.

I've listened and read conservative media for years. I started listening to Rush in college, 20 years ago, whilst hiding in an upstairs attic doing data entry for the admissions office.

I could care less what Joe Scarborough thinks. *He's* certainly done nothing much for conservatism, because he's like nails on a chalkboard.

I find Glenn Beck to be somewhat intriguing. I watch him occasionally. He does a good job visually -- mostly all conservative media has is radio. Some people probably need to see how things relate to each other in the visual way he lays it out.

Do I think Glenn is a quintessential "conservative" a la William F. Buckley or Jonah Goldberg? No, but he does a decent job getting certain information out. There's a place for him in this world.

[Dogwood]

Good grief people, Beck is an entertainer, not a leader of the conservative movement.

But given that qualifier, Beck is doing more to hold this administration accountable than any alleged conservative leader inside the Beltway.

The simple fact is we are having this conversation about Beck because there isn't any strong leadership coming from "conservative" politicians in Congress. The House & Senate GOP leaders, George Bush, and ivory tower pundits are responsible for where conservatism is today.

The only people who seem to be fighting the good fight are people like Beck & Limbaugh.

Until real conservatives take leadership roles in Congress and govern conservatively, and real conservative ivory tower pundits shrug off the embrace of centrism and compromise and start fighting back against ever growing statism, then the rank-and-file members of the conservative movement have nothing to look forward to but the next episode of the Beck & Limbaugh shows.

How utterly pathetic.

[JadedByPolitics]

Joe Scarborough is an idiot or as I like to call that type of idiot "Compassionate" Conservatives or Rockefeller Republicans...you decide. I call people like him that because the reality is they are liberals or progressives who like a tax cut and that is as far as their Conservatism takes them. I am sick of those "Republicans" who don't like Beck when the fact of the matter is that Beck has done more to move Conservatism foward by showing the ugliness of liberalism/progressivism. Those with a R behind their names who would have folded up and died after the election in 2008 are having a rebirth because of the actions of Conservative internet sites and Glenn Beck and talk radio of which Beck is also part of.

The Republican Party isn't dead but the leaders of it are in a state of rigor mortis. They will have their day in the sun again in 2010 but they will be nothing in the bigger picture because CONSERVATIVES will be running the show and they can take their pathetic butts and sit on their hands and listen to what Conservative value's really are...small government, government out of your bedroom, healthcare, etc going back to the states to handle which is where social issue's should be handled.