Politico has a long article about conservatives’ concerns about whether Glenn Beck’s upcoming rally, and his activism in general, is dedicated to advance conservative ideas or just about advancing Glenn Beck.
As if there is even a question.
But I wanted to highlight this one section:
At the request of Beck’s team, which lacked the organizational infrastructure or logistical know-how to pull off Saturday’s march, asked for assistance, Tea Party Patriots agreed to help promote the march among its 500,000 email subscribers and to provide 400 volunteers to staff it, a requirement before the National Park Service would issue a permit.
So Beck asked Tea Party activists for help in organizing and staffing the event but insists that this is not a Tea Party/political event, but rather a solemn religious assembly:
It won’t feel like a Tea Party event. I told people “leave your signs at home.” You will feel the difference, I think, when you first walk out on the mall. I’ve put this at the Lincoln Memorial for a reason. That’s a sacred spot. This isn’t a “rah rah USA!” kind of thing. This is a sacred reflective spot in our nation, you know, the Reflecting Pool. That was done for a reason. I think if you stand between Lincoln and Washington, spiritually, mentally, morally, we will heal our country. I am putting people between Washington and Lincoln physically to try and give them the understanding that these two giants were men just like them. They were American citizens who just did the hard thing, and sometimes doing the hard thing is just doing the right thing. Or more importantly, when nobody notices. And so this is really just to go back to the founding principles.
If you have any doubt that Beck’s egomania is rapidly spinning out of control, you really ought to read the entire interview he gave to Townhall in which he repeatedly insists that “there is a revolution coming” and that his 8-28 rally is going to, literally, transform the nation because he, just like the Founding Fathers, is “divinely inspired”:
I believe this is the battle between good and evil. If you look at those who live under Shariah law in Iran, the ideas are just more extreme there. It is a clash of people that are rulers, who say they know better and they will force people to do whatever it is and they will destroy those who disagree with them. On a much lesser degree, that’s where we are headed and where it finally ends I don’t know, but is the same root of the same tree of evil. We are battling the oldest battle known to man and it is a spiritual battle that must be won inside of ourselves first.
I learned this from studying the years of 1740-1776, there was an awakening, then an enlightenment, then freedom. If we don’t wake up to the truth of God and the spirit, we are toast.
