Vancitydissident's Blog

Tonight’s blog has to with media demagogue Glenn Beck, his followers—whom many call “Beckerheads”, blatant sexism and a blossoming Fascist movement.

During the past week, Mr. Beck, who is currently promoting his new book Arguing With Idiots, when he isn’t slandering United States Senators in a blatantly sexist manner—more on that later—announced he is moving into the political arena.
According to Beck, he plans to exploit the civil war within the Republican party by becoming a “community organizer” and “changing the course of America.

It is obvious that by “changing the course of America” as a “community organizer”, Beck means that he will bootstrap, gerrymander and bullshit his “tea-party” movement into a political party, eviscerating the GOP, much as that party did when it formed from the better members of the Whig party.

Beck, apparently taking this change stuff—and himself—too seriously, announced that he had a “100-year plan” for the United States.

When you see the cover of Beck’s book, the words “100-year plan” sound entirely too much like “1000-year Reich”.

During a weekend rally in Orlando, Florida, Beck also told a mass of admirers, “America, we cannot wait for a leader anymore. The people must leader, and the leader will follow”.

On Monday’s radio-show, Beck ratcheted the rhetoric up a notch, adding, “I’m going to teach you how to be a community organizer next year, oh, because two can play at that game. It’s time to find our teeth and sharpen our teeth, and we’re going to do it”.

Let’s remember that Hitler’s first attempt to take over Germany arose from a gathering at a beer-hall, and that upon his release from prison, he amassed an impressive number of SA, commonly known as “Brown-Shirts”.

Mussolini also arose from similar beginnings. He and the original Fascists rose to power by pandering to rural and ignorant Italians, rather than Romans, Milanese And Venetians, promising to return Italy to “its past glory” and “crack down on crime”. Impatient, he and his brethren in the National Fascist Party didn’t wait for this strategy to finish bringing them to power, and simply marched on Rome in a coup d’état.
Whenever someone was dumb enough to question Il Duce, one common reply was that “he made the trains run on time”.

Returning to Beck’s remarks about sharpened teeth, one might wonder whether he found inspiration in a 1928 speech by Mussolini, the most famous line of which is, “Let us have a dagger between our teeth, a bomb in our hands, and an infinite scorn in our hearts”.

You know? With the exception of the bomb, I can hear Beck, O’Reilly or Limbaugh saying that. Creepy.

In a similar display of mass stupidity, the “Beckerheads” gather round Beck’s tour-bus, wherever he may appear, fawning over him. In fact, while being interviewed by a TV network, one even called him a saviour.

Saviour of what? (I’m thinking the name of The Saviour, as I type this.)
This is the sort of slavish, mindless devotion from which Fascist movements are crafted. Like bread and biscuits, we need only wait for the germinating movement to rise. Actually, I think it’s already starting to rise. I’ll bet the dough-bowl is already a little warm.

As for Glenn Beck’s hypocritical sexism, it takes the form of what Keith Olbermann called “a bout of verbal diarrhea”.

On Saturday night, Mary Landrieu, the senior U.S. Senator from Louisiana—a state with many uninsured and underinsured residents—had the temerity to vote in favor of bringing the health-care reform bill to the Senate floor for debate.

Beck wasted no time, throwing two consecutive “below the belt” verbal punches against the conscientious Senator.
Yesterday, he called her a prostitute on his show.
Today, he reiterated his appalling appellation, remarking, “we know you’re hooking, but I guess you’re not cheap”.

(****sound of crickets chirping****)
That’s what we’re hearing from the GOP and other right-wingers, despite the blatant sexism of the remarks.

Do you know what would have happened, had Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann called Sarah Palin a hooker, remarked upon her “Pretty Woman” attire, her simpering—and limited—vocal style.

This is not over..

We cannot hold one side to a different standard than the other.

Likewise, we cannot blindly allow a broadcast personality—who may or may not be mentally-ill, depending upon your opinion—to lead us down a garden-path which may end in a poppy-field, tar-pit or briar-patch.