Beck Rally Confirms Maher’s Claims About Dumb Americans

Political humorist Bill Maher often gets in trouble for calling Americans stupid. But after watching about 90,000 people show up to a rally thrown by entertainer/cult leader Glenn Beck can there be any further discussion?

Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally simply revealed that Americans are willing to follow a charismatic leader even if he has a wacky agenda. After all, televangelists who hawk the widely discredited prosperity gospel also have huge followings, and Beck’s credibility is on par with the men who beg for money on TBN and professional wrestlers.

The rally itself was a strange event, which moved away from a political fest, (Tea Baggers were told to leave their hate signs at home) and turned into a quasi-religious revival. And this too is strange because Beck is a Mormon, and follows a faith that many Evangelicals don’t even recognize as mainstream Christianity.

Marsha White, writing on the conservative web site RenewAmerica, said, “Mostly he (Beck) uses Christian terminology, which is misleading. It would seem that Beck is a Christian. But how can that be? Mormons deny the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Mormon beliefs do not line up with Scripture yet they insist on calling themselves Christian when they clearly are not.”

If the curious religious nature of the event is surprising. It is nothing compared to the political comments of the attendees:

• According to Talking Points Memo, Carolyn Cassaberry of Newport News, Va, who attended the rally, said that she was not sure if President Barack Obama is a Muslim and needed more documentation.

• Many attendees were happy at the religious tones of the rally, but they had no idea Beck is a Mormon.

• The Velvet Revolution website interviewed a Black Tea Bagger from New Jersey who felt that something needed to be done about the health care system, but believed the “free market” was the answer, even though countries like France, Germany and Canada have much more efficient government-run health care systems.

• Other rally attendees supported Tea Party supporter Ted Nugent’s idea of “putting a bullet in illegal immigrants.”

• But the best quote comes from an AP story that interviewed Ricky Thomas, a father from Chesapeake Beach, Md., who said he wanted the government to stay out of people’s lives. Thomas is a SWAT officer who makes his living kicking down doors and arresting people, who may or may not be guilty. He also draws a nice government pension and has employer-provided health care. So if Thomas hates the government so much why doesn’t he quit his job and give up those tax-payer provided benefits?

But this is the level of discourse we expect from people who gather all their information from FOX News, a station that runs race-baiting stories round the clock and tells its viewers that Obama is a Marxist-Muslim terrorist who wants to destroy America.

And why should we expert accuracy or intellectual honesty from a rally organized by a man who says he wants to reclaim civil rights, but thinks the president is a racist? Beck also later said that he did not agree with the economic goals of the Civil Rights movement.

In a rambling interview with Chris Wallace on “FOX News Sunday,” Beck also called Obama’s faith a “perversion of Christianity” (even though many Christians do not identify with Beck’s faith). He also criticized people on the left for using racial politics, even though he works for a network that has spent the entire summer running what MSNBC host Rachel Maddow calls “scare white people stories,” such as the false Shirely Sherrod story and the fake New Black Panther story.

It pains me to write about Beck, who has said that his primary goal is making money and doesn’t care about the political system, but when almost 90,000 show up to follow the rantings of a clueless man, something has to be said. Beck is a showman who thrives on attention, negative or positive, but liberal writers have to at least point out his lies and hope someone is paying attention.

During his interview with Wallace, Beck did drop a few nuggets of honesty into his sea of lies. He said that even though his followers wear Palin-Beck T-shirts, he could never get elected president. And that is something we can agree on.

The Civil War, Civil Rights Battles Aren't Over

A few days ago, I had a racial epiphany. The Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement are not over. In fact we haven't even won these battles, the other side merely declared a ceasefire.

Both the Civil Rights Movement and the Civil War were battles over the status of black people, and by default all people of color. And even with a black president, and other ethnic minorities running major companies and running for the highest political office, this battle is far from over.

But it is clear from recent political events that there are many forces in this country who are not happy with the new paradigm shift. There are many people, some openly, some covertly, who long for a time, when white men ran everything, and everyone else knew their place.

This is what Tea Party members mean when they say "they want their country back." And this is what people like Pat Buchanan mean when they lament about the decline of America and pine for the 1950s.

However it's more than just believing that white men should control the reigns of the government and commerce, it's also a belief in the inferiority of black and brown people. During Obama's election campaign, we often heard comments from white voters (mainly in the South) saying they "didn't think a black person should be in that position."

It's hard not believe that there are forces who want to reinforce and reestablish white supremacy. Consider these recent events:

• Arizona's new immigration law gives police the power to stop and question people who they deem to be "illegal." And by illegal we are not talking about Asians or Caucasians, this is directed at people who look like illegal Latino immigrants. Not satisfied with that, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, on orders from God, passed another law that banned ethnic studies classes and teachers with heavy accents. .
• Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed legislation declaring April Confederate History month. The state's recognition of the Confederacy made no mention of slavery. According to historian William J. Cooper Jr., "From at least the time of the American Revolution white southerners defined their liberty, in part, as the right to own slaves and to decide the fate of the institution without any outside interference."
• According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Southern Legal Resource Center has requested for a "Confederate Southern American" box on the census.
• And most recently Rand Paul, won the Republican primary for the Kentucky senatorial seat. In an interview, Rand Paul said he takes issue with the Civil Rights Act, because it allows the government to dictate to business owners who they can let in their establishments. Effectively Rand Paul is arguing that private business owners should have the right to bar black people from their establishments. This is all the more disturbing considering Rand's father, Rep. Ron Paul, has been pictured arm-in-arm with leading white supremacists. Rand Paul had to fire his media director when it was discovered that he had posted racist messages on his MySpace page.

It's hard to believe that in the second decade of the 21st century we are still having these arguments. Many editorial writers suggest that this resurgence of racial animosity is the last gasp of the dying beast. The days of white male supremacy are over. American society has gone through huge changes which cannot be repealed.

Women now have financial and sexual independence to the point that many of them are choosing not to get married or have children. Black people have penetrated every level of American society, and those numbers are going up. Black culture has morphed into pop culture and almost every kid under the age of 20 has Lil Wayne on their iPod.

And for the all the madness coming out of Arizona, America needs Latinos bodies. White America is simply not producing enough children to pay into the Social Security system, and more and more brothers don't want to fight the American empire's wars.

So let's end this nonsense once and for all. America is not going back to a white male-dominated society and the sooner certain segments of this society understand it, the easier it will be for all us.