Glenn Beck has found religion and don’t you forget it. On this Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010, he hammered it home as a messiah from heaven.
As I watch live on C-Span his rally “Restoring Honor” to our troops and our country, I honestly am conflicted with mixed emotions.
Is this guy a carnival pitchman, rodeo clown, demagogue dressed in a collared polo shirt or Moses reincarnated .. I do not pretend to know. I am confident of one thing: Beck is a passionate showman. I am not so confident of his definition of U.S. history.
The rally at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial was billed as non political. As I write this Sarah Palin, a scheduled speaker, had yet to address the gathering. On the surface, the speeches were not political in the sense of Democrats vs. Republicans.
(UPDATE: Here’s a partial video of Palin’s speech “Restoring America” from CNN. Somehow I think she is still in the “Lock and Reload” sound bite mode spoken from the mouth of a mama grizzly.)
But the tone and undercurrents did ring political subtleties that made me cringe — that God is on our side and thereby “we’ are right and “you” are misled.
In the hype leading up to the rally, I was disgusted with the nasty, mean-spirited arrows slung at Beck for his pompous audacity to hold the event on “hallowed” ground several steps from Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech 47 years ago today. Certainly Beck invited such stings from his past public utterances such as President Obama being a racist. But as in all hype such as that leading up to the kickoff of the Super Bowl, it always exceeds the actual game.
It was especially painful for me to listen to Eugene Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Washington Post, appear on MSNBC Friday night saying a featured speaker at today’s rally was a niece of the Rev. King and described by Robinson as the oddball of the King family. C’mon, folks. I have three brothers of which one is a Tea Party Republican and we don’t consider him what my mother would call a “black sheep.”
Without going to the C-Span website and others for comments from people who watched and attended the rally, I have one independent thought of my own.
That is the rally is a Cecil B. DeMille, a James Cameron version of any patriotic rally one would see at a Fourth of July parade. It was a feel good event. Orchestrated? By all means. Politically subliminal? You betcha.
The rally was an honest peek at how millions of Americans feel about themselves and their country if only they would practice what they preach — faith, hope and charity.
As the days continue before the dust settles, Beck will be ridiculed and honored as a demigod, charlatan, national hero or messiah. While he laughs himself silly as the armored trucks rumble to the banks to deposit the spoils..
(Photo: Alex Bandon/AP courtesy MSNBC.com)
Cross posted on The Remmers Report
Comments are welcome. Link to my blogsite or go to my email address at [email protected] . Remmers’ varied career spans 26 years in the newspaper business. Read a more thorough resume on The Remmers Report.
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.