Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Joe Scarborough agrees: Glenn Beck is bad news for the conservative movement.



It's not only people like myself who think Glenn Beck is going way too far. Now conservative pundits are lining up to say that Beck is playing with fire; and even Joe Scarborough is calling for Republican leaders, especially ones with future presidential ambitions, to call Beck out for his blatant race baiting.

Scarborough: But when you preach this kind of hatred, and say that an African American president hates all white people -- stay with me -- hates all white people, you are playing with fire. And bad things can happen. And if they do happen, not only is Glenn Beck responsible, but conservatives who don't -- call -- him -- out -- are responsible.

This follows hot on the heels of similar comments from Peter Wehner:
But the role Glenn Beck is playing is harmful in its totality. My hunch is that he is a comet blazing across the media sky right now—and will soon flame out. Whether he does or not, he isn’t the face or disposition that should represent modern-day conservatism.
The truth is that Beck is a buffoon. Even attempting to follow his logic during those rambling and often utterly disconnected diatribes is simply painful. He pretends that he is simply asking questions because this allows him to make wild accusations without actually owning these accusations.

Until now, Beck has always claimed [during interviews with O'Reilly] that "the left" are trying to silence him. The implication is that what he is saying is of such import that it threatens us. The truth is much starker. Glenn, because he is a buffoon, has started race baiting and playing with subjects which he is simply too stupid to understand. The racist accusations which he is so casually throwing around are dangerously inflammable in a country with America's racial past.

It's so seldom that one can ever offer admiration towards Joe Scarborough, but I can easily do so here.

Scarborough is joining the few people on the right who can clearly see what Beck is doing and are brave enough to stand up and demand that the rest of the Republican movement condemn it.

Beck is not a clown and what he is doing is not funny. It's really, really, f#cking dangerous.

Good on Scarborough for calling him on it.

UPDATE:



Cenk has a good take on this. He thinks that Beck is simply a crowd pleaser who will say whatever the people in front of him want to hear. I must admit that I can't follow Beck's logic a lot of the time. And when he talks of Socialism and Fascism, as if the two ideologies are interchangeable, then I honestly doubt that he really knows what he is talking about.

Hat tip to Crooks and Liars.

4 comments:

daveawayfromhome said...

Beck may be a buffoon who doesnt know what he's doing, but Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ayles are not, and it's their network upon which his buffoonery continues unchecked. They know what they, and he, are doing.

Kel said...

Of course, Dave. That's one of the things which most shocked me about his "Obama is a racist" comment. Neither Ailes nor Murdoch felt the need to ask him to withdraw that remark. It's as if that is the official Fox News position.

nunya said...

I'm OK with Limbaugh, Beck and Fox newz leading the Republican party out into the desert. And becoming mummified. lol.

Kel said...

Nunya, they are heading out to the desert. But Scarborough is right to state that, should violence take place as a result of the language that these nutters are using, then Republicans who fail to condemn this will also bear responsibility.