Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots. ha
This stunt is pretty disgraceful, but this was a nice article on it.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- "We are on the right side of history! We are on the side of individual freedoms and liberties and, dammit, we will reclaim the civil rights moment. We will take that movement -- because we were the people who did it in the first place." -- Glenn Beck, on his nationally syndicated radio program, May 26.
It is Glenn Beck's most audacious stunt yet: This Saturday, in the company of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the National Rifle Association and others, the Fox News Channel host will stand in the sacred shadow not just of the Lincoln Memorial but of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. himself, near the spot where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech 47 years earlier to the exact day.
During this event -- billed as "Restoring Honor" -- Beck will aim to "reclaim the civil rights moment" for his cause, and in the process he will continue what he's been doing for the last 18 months: bending the history of 20th-century America like a Philadelphia soft pretzel.
The revisionist message behind "Restoring Honor" is nothing new for the conservative shock jock. In the year and half since President Obama took office, Beck has led his loyal followers on a journey not just to "reclaim" civil rights but much more audaciously to rewrite the sweeping narrative arc of American history from the time of the Founding Fathers forward.
iReport: Warning to Tea Party members coming to D.C.
The backbone of the Tea Party is over-55s and especially retirees -- some planned, some forced -- with the most valuable asset of all, time.
They see studying U.S. history as a powerful reconnection with their youth. Waiting for Beck's "American Revival" show in Orlando, Florida, in March, 70-year-old fan Joseph Cerniglia told me he was way too busy for civics lessons when he was raising kids and working as a stockbroker and then cider-maker. "I have learned more from Glenn Beck -- learned more about American history and government, from Glenn Beck -- than in the previous 40 years of my life," the retiree told me.
For thousands of followers such as Cerniglia, there is a genuine desire to relearn American history. The only problem is that what they're learning is bunk. It's not history as it happened, but rather a Beck-scripted, Tea Party rewrite of history that demonizes Obama, Democrats and progressive activists.
In this alternate reality version of the past, the 20th century's heroic battles over equal rights for racial and ethnic minorities, women and homosexuals are recast as a march toward socialism and away from the Founding Fathers. Meanwhile, flawed progressive Woodrow Wilson and even Teddy Roosevelt become America's Lenin and Trotsky while it is the pre-Depression-era Calvin Coolidge who belongs on Mount Rushmore.
More recently, Beck has featured on Fox, at several well-attended "American Revivals" and on his web-based "university" a new right-hand man -- David Barton, a key figure in the recent right-wing rewrite of Texas school textbooks -- to teach his viewers the much-debunked idea that America's creation was rooted in Christianity.
Barton's machine-gun-paced spewing of 18th-century God references and black-robed revolutionary preachers gives less than short shrift to the real achievement of the Founders in separating church and state. In April, Barton told Beck's 3 million TV viewers that "we use the Ten Commandments as basis of civil law and the Western world [and it] has been for 2,000 years."
The results of this re-education campaign have been nothing short of phenomenal. A mere on-air endorsement by Beck of any obscure book -- such as "Sacred Fire," on the spirituality of George Washington -- will propel it to the best-seller list. Now, thousands of fans have signed up for a paid "insider" package that includes an online Glenn Beck University with lectures by Barton and others.
But pseudo-history is having a real impact on current events. In Texas, the new school curriculum downgrades democracy-minded Thomas Jefferson as well as 1960s civil rights. In the political arena, some activists are pushing to repeal the 17th Amendment that allows people to elect U.S. senators directly -- largely because the measure was enacted during Wilson's progressive era.
While all these histories are too important to lose to revisionism, none represents more of a risk than the civil rights era. In 1963, King understood that his dream of equal rights for black Americans would never happen without intervention from the federal government, a concept that's such an anathema to the Tea Partiers, the Beck-sponsored 9/12 movement and the other right-wing radicals who'll occupy the Mall this Saturday.
Famously, King lashed out at the Alabama governor -- George Wallace -- who had "his lips dripping with the words of 'interposition' and 'nullification' " -- a reference to claims by Wallace and other segregationists that states' rights trumped the power of Washington to promote integration.
Yet these two maligned principles are exactly what the Tea Party wants their red-state governors to do to block health care reform and other major federal initiatives of the first black president. This contradiction is lost on the Tea Partiers, and if the recent past is prologue, such facts will matter little to the mass of people who've risen up in the backlash against the Obama presidency.
Most moderates and liberals aren't even aware that this Hollywood-size script doctoring of U.S. history is taking place -- and the political consequences may be enormous. George Orwell wrote that "who controls the past ... controls the future." Beck and his fans may reclaim a lot more than the legacy of 1960s civil rights this weekend -- unless America's too silent majority is finally ready to start fighting back for our past.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/2...ory/index.html
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
Why is it disgraceful? He isn't doing anything more than what other civil rights people are doing now days. Everyone, including Beck, Maddow, Behar, O'Reilly, or whoever it is will use whatever mean at their disposal to get their Message across to the people. Just because his views are different does not make it disgraceful.
Obama even uses scare tactics and out of hand dismissals of others when it suits his agenda. Any politician, new anchor, or talk show host does.
Even CNN gets it wrong sometimes.
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
I guess they just didn't see the point in mentioning that one of the featured speakers at the rally is Dr. Alveda King.
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
Quote:
Originally Posted by
centennialdawg
Why is it disgraceful? He isn't doing anything more than what other civil rights people are doing now days. Everyone, including Beck, Maddow, Behar, O'Reilly, or whoever it is will use whatever mean at their disposal to get their Message across to the people. Just because his views are different does not make it disgraceful.
Obama even uses scare tactics and out of hand dismissals of others when it suits his agenda. Any politician, new anchor, or talk show host does.
Even CNN gets it wrong sometimes.
Beck is a lunatic, liar, manipulator, conspiracy theory nut-job...he's called Obama a racist and mocks his 11 year old daughter, I'm sure this is exactly who Dr King would have wanted to be speaking. He's hijacked an american hero to spew his ignorance, it's not just disgraceful, it's disgusting. O'Reilly isn't nearly as bad as Beck, I don't how behar get's into the mix of political commentator and Maddow doesn't doesn't, nor would ever done anything like this - she leans left of course, but doesn't lie or mislead, incredibly smart and extremely informative. What little that is incorrect on her show, is made mention and corrected in a following episode.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TheBeast
I guess they just didn't see the point in mentioning that one of the featured speakers at the rally is Dr. Alveda King.
You mean the same Alveda King who is a member of a conservative think-tank, endorsed John McCain, spoke against Obama and is about as far right as Beck? Oh yes, wonder why she wasn't mentioned? lmao. Because she happens to be the niece of King, doesn't mean she represents him.
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
Obama is a racist at heart. King is not a hero, he was just a man with a message. A message that was heard by all people then. But then, King was motivated by the times and then was considered a fanatic and troublemaker by most. Most notably, by Malcolm X. They hated each other.
Beck is doing nothing more than what King did when he was around. King was labeled a racist then, too.
And I think that you must harbor some animosity toward Beck over his choice of venues: In front of the Lincoln Memorial.
Just because Beck is white is the only reason these reporters are labeling him a racist and liar. If Beck had been black, or any other color, then this "rally" wouldn't even be mentioned.
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
Quote:
Originally Posted by
centennialdawg
Just because Beck is white is the only reason these reporters are labeling him a racist and liar. If Beck had been black, or any other color, then this "rally" wouldn't even be mentioned.
Which is sad. Racism is wrong no matter what. There's racism towards whites also but no one ever admits to that.
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Milk3
Which is sad. Racism is wrong no matter what. There's racism towards whites also but no one ever admits to that.
That is because it is not "politically correct" to talk about reverse racism.
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
Quote:
Originally Posted by
centennialdawg
Obama is a racist at heart. King is not a hero, he was just a man with a message. A message that was heard by all people then. But then, King was motivated by the times and then was considered a fanatic and troublemaker by most. Most notably, by Malcolm X. They hated each other.
Beck is doing nothing more than what King did when he was around. King was labeled a racist then, too.
And I think that you must harbor some animosity toward Beck over his choice of venues: In front of the Lincoln Memorial.
Just because Beck is white is the only reason these reporters are labeling him a racist and liar. If Beck had been black, or any other color, then this "rally" wouldn't even be mentioned.
Ha and you're as looney as him, we're talking about the same Obama who's mother is white and was raised by his white grandparents. What has he done and why would you ever think he's a "racist at heart"? Love to hear this. And yes King was, he stood up for what he knew was right with everything against him and changed the world - well had a major hand in it. He wasn't considered a "trouble-maker by most", by white southernors basically, but far from most and Malcolm sure didn't think that, he thought he wasn't radical at all. They didn't hate each other, they strongly disagreed about the methods of the movement, and during X's earlier years he was spoke against King's method pretty harshly...but X cooled down a lot after he came back from Mecca and King spoke very highly of him when he was shot.
Are you serious right now? Did you really just say Beck is doing what King did? Wow. On what planet is Glenn Beck ever doing anything close to what King did? Never called him a racist, I called him unatic, liar, manipulator, conspiracy theory nut-job. The man is unstable, seriously.
His "views" are insane and not just his choice of venue, but on the anniversary of King's "I have a Dream" speech, at the very location and same steps. The guy says he's going to "reclaim the civil rights movement" for his own movement, in front of a group of people that doesn't have a good track record recently of racism and that 47 years ago, King would have been criticizing.
No, it's because he's Glenn Beck, whites have spoken there before and there will be other whites there...no one cares. You have him, Palin and the NRA...plus the David Barton guy...
"David Barton, a key figure in the recent right-wing rewrite of Texas school textbooks -- to teach his viewers the much-debunked idea that America's creation was rooted in Christianity."
You realize what they tried to rewrite about slavery and the civil rights movement in that book? Just leave things like that out or dress them up. If a black held these same extreme, idiotic views and what he represents...it would be criticized just as much. Though I didn't see in the article where he was called a racist or anything close, just a nut-job and how ironic of what he represents and holding his "rally" on those steps, on that day. It's disgusting.
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
I might make a very strong suggestion to you r13 to edit the Looney part out about me. You don't know me.
Re: Beck trying to bring Civil Rights movement back to it's white, conseravtive roots
Good, good opinion piece on his rally. Nails it down perfectly.
CNN) -- Glenn Beck, consummate showman and talk hound, would have been more honest calling his rally to "Restore Honor" a rally to restore the culture wars.
Despite his splashy show to celebrate the troops, Beck's rally was not about "honor" any more than the controversy over the Islamic center near ground zero is about a building -- or the immigration debate is about fixing the system. Instead, Beck's rally upped the ante on America's social divides, all the while appearing to champion unity. It was a clever head-fake disguising backward conservative zealotry as feel-good inclusion.
"May this day be the change point," said Sarah Palin, the rally's darling. "Look around you. You're not alone. You are Americans!" In his keynote, Beck declared that America is "in the midst of a great war" over its values. "America is at a crossroads," Beck said. "We must decide: Who are we and what do we believe?"
Anxious that the culture war over gay and reproductive rights is suffering setbacks, the right is doubling down. Its revamped culture war, flaunted at the rally, is gaining impressive traction.
Fiery skirmishes in this war abound. Beck and his progressive adversaries clash over this nation's role and purpose in the world, who gets to be American at home, and what our country can afford and should demand of us. The debates over immigration, birthright citizenship, and the scope of public spending are the more visible flashpoints of this clash.
That "Muslim" and "socialist" are the country's two reigning slanders speaks volumes about ... this cultural war.
--Rich Benjamin
RELATED TOPICS
* Glenn Beck
* Sarah Palin
* Racism and Bigotry
* U.S. Conservative Politics
Besides the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the major figure dominating the rally in absentia was President Obama. One rally supporter, typifying the mood, dubbed the president "Chairman Maobama." Another rally participant sported a T-shirt: "If you can't love America, go back to Kenya."
Beck may insist the rally was nonpolitical, but participants and viewers had other ideas.
With each passing day, President Obama stands increasingly as the lightning rod of this morphing culture war. Growing numbers of people believe the president is Muslim. Other data show that a majority of Americans believe that he is a socialist.
That "Muslim" and "socialist" are the country's two reigning scarlet slanders speaks volumes about the psyche behind this cultural war.
The public's perplexing confusion over Obama's identity -- conservatives' well-landed one-two punch -- is testament to the right wing's canny success contorting the president's image.
Here, a virulent coded racism conjoins with "anti-communist" character assassination. Although Beck's rally touted King as a hallmark icon, conservatives in King's time tarred the black civil rights leader as a Communist subversive. Now, those very attacks are being plagiarized to attack Obama: each has been labeled a communist sympathizer bent on destroying the freedom of average Americans.
During King's lifetime, right-wing leaders cast doubt on his Christian credentials and warned that his efforts toward integration amounted to communist tactics to destroy America. Now, Beck declares: "Most Americans don't recognize Obama's version of Christianity." Other right-wing leaders dub the president's program of economic opportunity a socialist plot to destroy America.
Both branded heretics and communists, King and Obama represent their opponents' disdain for court-ordered desegregation and government "takeover," respectively. They shout "We want our country back!"
King and Obama stand as whipping boys for America's decline, the uppity enemies of "individual freedom," "privatization," "states' rights" and social homogeneity -- goals that once defined segregationist politics and that now define the right-wing cause.
What a cunning feat of psychology for Beck and Palin to have commemorated "I Have a Dream." They spew a toxic brew of anger, spiked with aspiration, to millions of eager white Americans -- all with a smile and a sneer. Each cultural warrior embodies a bizarre combination of triumph and complaint, one that their decidedly white fan base devours. In waging cultural warfare with optimism and grievance, such conservatives willfully misconstrue King's dream that we judge one another by the content of our character as license to neglect social inequality.
Recent right-wing hijinks -- Andrew Breitbart's character assassination of Shirley Sherrod, Laura Schlessinger's n-word musings, the rising xenophobia of immigration opponents -- have had an incendiary racial timbre. Beck surely imagines that yoking his cause to Dr. King's memory, and crowding his stage with black gospel singers, provides the best insurance policy against ongoing charges of bigotry.
Besides twisting King's message, Beck's rally was even more galling for exploiting the troops, who include immigrants and Muslims, to celebrate a reactionary, backward-looking dream for America.
Glenn Beck cranks up the culture wars - CNN.com
