Tag Archives: Glen Beck

Point of View Columns

A Public Service Announcement

A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

It appears that the silly season has come to an end and now the politics of America is infused with deserved life and death gravity. We have been inundated with 24 hour news reports of G.O.Tea Party nympholepsy – witches in Delaware, wrestling impresarias in Connecticut, wannabe thugs in New York and know nothings in Nevada.

For those who appreciate the history and the present tense of politics and political discourse this tsunami of silliness has been nothing short of entertaining. But it is not entertainment. This is not “Dancing With The Stars” with lecterns or “American Idol” with teleprompters. It is a very serious time in this country and there should be no doubt as to what is at stake in the November 2nd midterm elections.

The call to “take back America” is not a slogan; it is a philosophy that encompasses moving this country back to a place in time. It is a place where civil rights and women’s rights are subject to question and debate – again. It is a place where compassion and common sense, embodied in government programs like Social Security, Medicare, environmental protection and healthcare would be eliminated or eviscerated.

It is a dada political world in which we find ourselves. It is a world where no sense makes sense. It is hard to imagine that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin have millions of followers, but they do. It is difficult to believe that Americans value the judgment of Rush Limbaugh. But they do. And they vote.

And that is the point of this public service announcement. This announcement does not require a video loop of a flag waving with the national anthem playing in the background, but it is important to note the importance of voting. It is always been important, but now more than ever it is crucial that we all exercise our right to vote.

It has become a cliché, but some clichés are true. It is true that many people died for the right of all American citizens to vote. The wars, foreign and civil, and internal struggles that granted suffrage to all citizens as a matter of right were not victimless.

As a black American, I am particularly mindful of the unnamed men and women, for whom no monuments have ever been erected, who lost their livelihoods, their homes and their lives so that all I have to do is walk to a polling station, sign my name and vote.

To squander this right due to apathy or dissatisfaction with the current choices is to miss the point. Politics and governance will never be about perfection – it will always be about the art of the possible. Further, and as importantly, there are millions of American men and women who have an agenda – however misguided, misinformed and bizarre it may be. Those who sit at home on November 2nd due to apathy and dissatisfaction with the current choices are in effect handing over their hard-earned right to vote to Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and the Tea Party zealots who do believe that their vote makes a difference.

A regular reader of the Point of View knows that I am not a supporter of the Tea Party or Sarah Palin or the G.O.Tea Party. But I have to respect their commitment and dedication to changing this country to suit their vision and will. And it is very clear to me that whatever the outcome of the November 2nd elections that the right wing of the right wing and their subterranean billionaire supports have indeed changed this country and the fundamental character of national discourse.

Infinite questioning of the citizenship of the President of the United States, seriously considering the repeal of the 14th Amendment, legalization of guns in bars, debating the need for the Departments of Education and Energy – these are all fundamental changes. The line has been drawn deeply in the sands of the national town square.

It would be a frightful shame if those with the right to vote and the desire to see change of another fashion were to sit at home on November 2nd. You can be certain that the zealots with a different vision will be at the polls voting early and……often.

Think about it and don’t wait until November 3rd to act. Wishing that you voted will turn out to be the saddest wish of all.

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Point of View Columns

Shameful and Shameless

It is pretty clear that when the discussion turns to modern political discourse and contemporary commentary in the United States there is no bottom. From blathering “birthers” to fallacious claims of “death panels” to the prospect of “terror babies” as the latest cavil to be hurled at immigrants along with calls for Koran burning sessions, nothing is too stupid, too revolting or too ridiculous to get a place in the media sun, however momentary.

With that thought in mind, no one can be too shocked at the depraved, mindless and morally impoverished disgrace perpetrated by Glenn Beck and his Tea Party cohorts this past weekend. To hold a rally at the Lincoln Monument (thankfully sans nooses and burning torches) on the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington for the purpose of exhorting Americans to “take back America” was obscene in its intentional desecration of the memory of a moment in time when it seemed that all things right were possible and there was no need to “take back” this country. Rather it seemed that it was time for everyone to share in this country.

I was blessed and favored to have actually attended the March on Washington on August 28, 1963 as a 13-year old kid from New Jersey who would be starting high school in a few weeks. I had never seen so many people in one place at one time for a single purpose except for when I sat on my father’s shoulders to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as a little guy. That the purpose was the elimination of injustice and racism and the promotion of equality and justice was uplifting and inspiring. Anger and rage were not the emotions of the day, but the demand for justice was clear and unequivocal and anyone who was on the mall that day will remember that moment for the rest of their lives.

I have to wonder what will the attendees of the Glenn Beck – Sarah Palin self-love fest remember for the rest of their lives? That they came to Washington to “take back America”? Take back America from whom? Will they recall that they raised their voices in a chorus to “reclaim America”? Having already exercised his freedom of speech to mindlessly insult President Obama as a “racist” with “a deep-seated hatred of white people” (which presumably would include the President’s white mother), Glenn Beck now proclaims that the President does not practice the “right type” of Christianity, while we should presume that he and his followers are steadfast in adhering to the true path that Jesus trod.

As noted, there is no bottom to this pit of madness and sadness. It is madness that, in the midst of this very real and sustained economic crisis there are millions of Americans who perceive the first black President of the United States to be complicit in some plot to “take” American away from them. It is a cause for sadness that too many of our fellow citizens believe, truly believe, that Barack Obama and his purported fascist/socialist/atheist/Muslim/subversive agenda will result in the final demise of this country when in fact it is their mobocratic tendencies that are sending us careening towards the brink of something very ugly.

And, at this stage of national debate, it must be clear to even the most partisan observer that the blackness of this president is not irrelevant to the outrage and bile and vitriol that have flowed into the national bloodstream. It is more than political disagreement that has 20 per cent of the population believing that he was not born in the United States, voicing an unspoken wish that some undeniable bolt of disqualification will make Barack Obama just go away almost two years after his election.

Every President of the United States, from George Washington to George W. Bush has been insulted and reviled. It is a part of the political process and the limitless freedom of speech that has been a truly exceptional aspect of this country for over two centuries. And certainly freedom of speech allows Tea Party yahoos to burn Barack Obama in effigy and to Photoshop his head onto the body of a half naked bushman.

We know that Abraham Lincoln was portrayed by his opponents as a baboon and George W. Bush was certainly burned in effigy more than a few times during his term in office. But the very special hatred that is directed towards Barack Obama is coming from something more than philosophical disagreement. There is a visceral need on the party of the Becks and the Palins and the Limbaughs and the right wing of the right wing and the Tea Party yahoos to “take back America” because this country has, in their minds, been besmirched and defaced by the dark presence that now occupies the White House.

The world premiere of “Birth of a Nation” was held at the White House at the invitation of President Woodrow Wilson. That racist screed on film directed by D.W. Griffith had at its core a message that it was time to “take back America”.

Now, instead of a cinematic monstrosity that upon its release inspired the lynching of black Americans throughout the country, we have Beck and Palin and the Tea Party yahoos cavorting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, proclaiming that they will “take back America” again.

Wilson and Griffith would be proud. This country should be ashamed.

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