The Ministry of Glenn Beck

I’m sure you know by now that I don’t like what Glenn Beck stands for. I don’t like his television pulpit insinuations and half-truths that portray anyone who has a liberal thought as a traitor to American principles.

There is nothing wrong with liberal thinking, as there is nothing wrong with conservative thinking. I support both philosophies depending on the issue, the facts and how it effects the greater good.

I wasn’t at the Glenn Beck rally in Washington D.C. I did read everything I could about the gathering. It was pure theatre.

Here is a portion of a report from the Christian Science Monitor, by Brad Knickerbocker.

“Beck's rhetoric more mellow

“We must get the poison of hatred out of us,” he (Beck) told the crowd. “We must look to God and look to love. We must defend those we disagree with.”

This from a man who has called Obama “a racist” and likened Al Gore’s campaign against global climate change to “what Hitler did” in having scientists use eugenics to justify the Holocaust.

Which drives Beck’s critics nuts.

“You can’t profit from fear and division all week and then denounce them one Saturday on the National Mall in Washington and hope nobody notices,” complains John Avlon on the Daily Beast website.

Beck “knows how to manipulate an audience’s emotions,” writes Avlon, author of “Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America.” “He uses conflict, tension, fear and resentment to keep their attention day after day, buying his books, attending his rallies.”

But none of that was on display Saturday, when Beck sounded more like an evangelical preacher than a flame-throwing political provocateur. “Today we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished – and the things that we can do tomorrow,” he said.”

Beck said the rally had nothing to do with politics, but everything to do with God and everything about returning to the values and the principles that made America great.

Excuse me, Mr. Beck. When did you start speaking for God? What makes you the arbiter that values have lessened from the core principles that made this country what it is?

America has never lost the core principles of her pledge to the integrity of an ideal. She is not done being a positive example of responsible participatory government, nor is she finished being an inspiration to the oppressed of the world. The inner covenant of Democracy, through equal opportunity and the pursuit of happiness, is still valid and universal.

Your rally isn’t about returning America to what she hasn’t lost. Your rally is about you, your megalomania and the aggrandizement of your self-importance.

Mr. Beck I do not deny your right to stand and shout and argue for what you believe. I do quibble with your invoking God as your credential and credibility. All of us can do that with anything we choose to state as truth.

Sarah Palin spoke. I do not share her assertion that just the current elected officials have led the nation astray. All politicians, including her, have led the electorate astray by the pork spending of public money that benefits few, promotes entitlements, and insures reelection.

It is time for America to loose the tentacles of partisan rhetoric and embrace the legacy of patriotic principles that emboldened this republic from the beginning.

We live in a pragmatic world, often fearful, sometimes cruel and we the people are not perfect, but collectively we strive to live up to the founding ideals of democracy. We shout, we argue, we debate, we accuse and when the votes are counted we accept, we get together and we live in diverse harmony until we do it again. Ms. Palin should know that and Mr. Beck forgets that this is the greatness of America.