Glenn Beck is the most successful pundit in America today. His secret? Bringing the kind of audacious, dim-witted, scandalous comments that are normally reserved for coffee shop conversation to a national television audience.
Beck’s loyal followers break into furious applause. “Somebody finally found the guts to say it!” they exclaim.
His critics gasp in shocked disbelief. “I can’t believe he actually said that!”
Either way, Beck’s notoriety, and market share, continues to expand.
Today, Beck and a holy host of conservative celebrities led by Sarah Palin will be hosting a Restoring Honor rally on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. If you want my take on Mr. Beck’s odious brand of bigotry you can find it in an earlier post where I introduced you to Beck’s mentor, a virulently racist John Birch propagandist named W. Clean Skousen. Beck’s brand of conservatism is essentially a repackaging of early 1960s John Birch paranoia.
Beck was at his muck-raking best recently when he wrapped himself in the mantle of Martin Luther King and predicted that he “wouldn’t be surprised if in our lifetime dogs and fire hoses are released or opened on us. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of us get a billy club to the head. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of us go to jail — just like Martin Luther King did — on trumped-up charges. Tough times are coming.”
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert is not amused.
But that’s Mr. Beck’s game. If he can get 100,000 to the Mall in DC he’ll be happy. If he can get New York Times columnists and obscure bloggers foaming at the mouth he’ll be delirious.
But Mr. Herbert couldn’t resist the bait, and neither could I. So once again, Mr. Beck wins.
We’re locked into a weird waltz with the Beckian heresy, and Beck is leading.
Friends of Justice 
Alan, I wonder how Rush Limbaugh feels about your naming Beck as the most successful pundit in America.
“. . . So once again, Mr. Beck wins.”
Really, I think the only chance we have of avoiding a congressional takeover by Beckites and Palinists in November is to keep hammering away at how far out of the main stream Beck, Palin, et al really are. I’m glad Bob Herbert is doing it. I’m glad Jim Wallis is doing it. And I’m glad obscure bloggers like you are doing it.
The ultra-right has the momentum, the excitement, and the commitment right now. We’ve got to change that.
Alan,
It’s always easier to attack than to defend. If your positions are entirely specious, then you don’t have to worry about defending them. You just provide any rationalization for whatever the audience prefers to believe, find a convenient scapegoat and you’re off and running.
If on the other hand, you are serious about your proposals, then you cannot afford to let them be attacked without a defense. The conundrum is that every time you attack the clown prince, you give him credibility in the eyes of his supporters, and even in the press, who see their job as umpires who don’t care what the two sides are.
What is the solution to this morass? Historically, this is not a new phenomenon. It rises every time there is an economic downturn and tends to evaporate when there is peace and prosperity. What is new is that one of our two major political parties has adopted the attack only posture on a 24/7/365 basis. That leaves no room for actual governing, since there are no reasoned policy positions that fit the attack campaign. And we cannot assume that if, somehow, peace and prosperity return, the attack machine will evaporate again. The only possible way to a more rational political environment is, as Charles suggests, continued hammering of the loonies as loonies, and connecting the loonies to the Republicans and to the policies that created our immense mess. This has to happen on a year round basis until the public demands not just an end to division, which is hopelessly naive, but an end to the people creating the division.