Glenn Beck Misses the Point (Again)
22. Nov, 2009 Written by:
Josh Eboch 
23 Comments
After weeks of teasing his audience with cryptic allusions to “The Plan,” on Saturday, Glenn Beck revealed key aspects of a new strategy he believes will help to restore constitutional sanity to American government. It won’t.
Given a perfect opportunity to embrace the concept of Jeffersonian federalism and state sovereignty as a check against the federal leviathan, Beck instead opted to push self-help seminars all over the country to teach ordinary folks “community organizing.”
Organizing is fine, but without a solid intellectual alternative to Washington, D.C.-dominated politics, all Beck’s legions are likely to do is get riled up and vote a bunch of Republicans back into Congress.
A bunch of Republicans that will still have no reason whatsoever to acknowledge the fundamental constitutional limitations on federal power.
Pardon me if I’m less than thrilled about partying like it’s 1994 all over again.
According to Beck’s website, these seminars will culminate in a rally on August 28, 2010 in Washington, D.C. at the feet of – who else? – Abraham Lincoln.
The irony of hosting an event designed to promote the Constitution at the feet of one of its worst enemies is almost painful.
Abraham Lincoln? You mean the Great Centralizer?
The president who shut down newspapers, imprisoned political opponents, and suspended habeas corpus? All while waging an illegal war that killed 620,000 Americans to prove the right of peaceful secession does not exist in a nation founded on that very principle?
Right, that Abraham Lincoln.
Let me be fair: Glenn Beck has been on point about a lot of things. He clearly has a knack for finding stories no one else is willing to report. But no plan to restore our Constitution can succeed unless it focuses on state sovereignty.
We don’t need new politicians in Washington, we need less power concentrated there in the first place.
America has been heading down an unsustainable path of centralization for more than a century and a half. Until we decide that freedom itself is incompatible with a one-size-fits-all government, we will continue to be pillaged by elected national monarchs from both political parties.
Once again, Glenn Beck seems to have missed a chance to use his very prominent platform to make that case.
Josh is a proud "tenther", freelance writer, and activist originally from the Washington, D.C. area. Josh is the State Chapter Coordinator for the Virginia Tenth Amendment Center.
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"I have begun meeting with some of the best minds in the country that believe in limited government, maximum freedom and the values of our Founders. I am developing a 100 year plan. … to restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting."
"I will be explaining the entire Plan over the coming weeks and months…"
I suggest we give hear the whole plan before saying, "he missed the point."
Besides, State Sovereignty, as great and important of a point that it is, alone it is not enough. Let's EACH push the points dearest on our own heart, and therefore work all the sectors of reformation that need to take place. (Personally, I do not see enough people pushing to secure a fair election process, limiting voter fraud. Educated votes will not make a difference if they are not counted fairly on election day.) There are so many areas that we need to work in. It would be best if we don't fight over who has the most important "point." There are a lot of important jobs to be done. We need voices to ring in support of each of them.
I find it amusing that you are a critic of "The Plan" before you've even heard the details…..and a critic of the location..yet you have no other suggestions….Obviously, Mek1959 and Josh, would rather return to the Civil War era with slavery re-enacted.
Hey Tkhk,
I'm a Beck fan, listen often…but the reality is, we bold ideas right now, not sort of nibbling around the edges. Granted, the progressives have an almost 100 year start on us, but there's nothing we can do about that. We've got to deal with where we are now and where we are now is a HUGE centralized federal government. As an aside, I have posited ideas (suggestions) on this website under the blog title "Is retaking the GOP the real goal of the Tea Party Movement?" In this post, I suggest 10 Really Tough Decisions (RTD's) that we need to make to restore liberty. I'm not anti Beck in the slightest, believe me. But Lincoln was not the best pick for a backdrop and we're up against a debt clock that keeps ticking away. I'm not sure we've got a 100 years left let alone 100 months.
Tkhk,
I offered the solution above and in many other places on this very website. It is FEDERALISM.
If you know so little about our history that you think state sovereignty is synonymous with slavery, then you need to read a few more books. I suggest beginning with Thomas DiLorenzo's "The Real Lincoln."
As Glenn Beck himself often says, search for the truth, not for confirmation of the beliefs you already hold.
Darned right Josh, thankyou. I've been forming very negative opinions of Teddy Roosevelt (a given), Alexander Hamilton (and the Fed – a monster even he could not have imagined), and lately Lincoln, that Republican icon. What a joke!
If you really know your history, you would choke every time you are asked to say the pledge of allegiance – not out of disloyalty to out great nation, but for the progressive ideals which it represents!
Also, if you know your history and your Lincoln, you'll know that the civil war was about tariffs and the North attempting to strangle the South as a side effect of protecting its own merchant class. The Emancipation Proclamation was icing on the cake, even a smokescreen, to dress up a very bloody war that did not need to be fought. Slaves were being educated and freed, and slavery was a naturally doomed institution in a nation such as the USA – Lincoln just glommed onto it to make himself look good.
Like another skinny Chicago orator, Lincoln had many fine words, and many dirty deeds.
(I have read DiLorenzo)
The ends do not justify the means, not in 1861, not in 1917, not ever! Statists have broken many millions of eggs, but they've never made a successful socialist omelette, because it can't be done.
An out of control leviathan like the federal government cannot be reformed; it must be reigned in. The only peaceable way to do that is via the only legitimate government that has control over those areas not delegated to the federal government: the state governments. It was the people and the states who created the federal government. Both of us have let this thing get out of hand and it is up to us to reign it in.
Mr. Beck missed a golden opportunity to promote states rights, but only promoted his own, weak, initiatives that do nothing and will accomplish nothing.
Hey Josh,
I couldn't agree with you more. Trying to do anything other than force the massive extra-constitutional centralized government into a decentralized entity via the States Rights movement is futile. I likewise agree with Beck's backdrop imagery BAD choice! Lincoln! C'mon, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in if it weren't for him.
I think he means well…
I agree with you about Glenn Beck… I love Glenn, and he has done some great work… I feel a great debt of gratitude to him; however, you are right, he has once again missed something…
Perhaps, before The Tea Parties, The 912 Project (with thanks to Glenn), then The Townhalls; where the people have clearly spoken, and once again, have been dismissed; Glenn may have been spot on. Now, I see a train in motion, and perhaps Glenn just doesn't want to see it, or just doesn't want to advocate it… But if this government does not wise up, I can see this escalating to the next level.
Let's face it, while Glenn means very well… with a show on Fox news, 2 or 3 number one selling books, and a radio show, why would he want to see The Republic fall into chaos? He is comfortable where he is… It does not mean he doesn't want change, but sadly, these people in Congress may not hear us until they are being physically tossed into The Potomac River!
Why does everyone keep saying Federalism? Yes, Federalism is the system upon which our great Constitution is built on, however, as appreciators of The Tenth Amendment and state rights, that would make us anti-Federalists!
Jefferson and Madison were both considered "anti-Federalists." That does mean anti-Federal government; it does mean, the states created the federal government; not vice-versa!
Mark,
You're right, of course. But we have gone so far from the founding principles that these days the old federalists have become nationalists and the old anti-federalists have become federalists.
Sort of like how "liberal" used to be a good thing.
I would settle for a federal government. I won't submit to a national one.
Hold on here Josh Eboch, we do need to learn how to implement the leftist community organizing strategy in order to take over the State and local Governments.
So this is not a total loss, besides we exist to service theses groups not to control them, we are a tool nothing more.
I don't know what Beck is planning here and if it is simply to replace the federal politicians, I agree that will not completely solve our problem. The politicians in Washington are corrupted by an over concentration of power, and so they cannot be welded by the people.
On the other hand learning to better originates ourselves will enable us to be more effective in taking control of the State houses as well as more effective in enduring the hard state and local level actions needed to rein in the Federal Government.
This fight is not yet over, nor do we know the full details of Beck's plains here, what we do however know is that we can be ready if it fails, just as we can greatly uses the ground it gains.
We should attempt to get the judge to make the argument to beck that we cant simply replace the federal politicians as they have already been corrupted by having too much power, anyone we replace them with will likewise become corrupted.
It's vital that we greatly weaken their power first. I must admit Lincoln was not a good president in hine site given what he did, but we cant change 150 years of entrenched dogma over night, we must instead uses it.
If people are to understand Lincoln and judge him for what he did, in the true light they must do so on their own with respect to their own judgment, we can't simply tell them Lincoln was a monsters, they will not accept that truth and will instead reject us.
2 things:
1. The problem with evaluating Lincoln is that very few know how to think outside the box. I have no regrets that he forced an end to slavery and actually think that was a good thing. But I certainly understand that having kicked the states in their butts pretty hard, the federal government has, since then, had a never-ending desire to ram-rod anything they want down the throats of the states.
Slavery is no longer an issue. We must stop thinking about Lincoln in those terms. I can appreciate one of the results of what Lincoln accomplished, while recognizing that he was the great enabler of a massive decay of peoples' freedom from the federal government.
Maybe he planned it; maybe he did not. Does it even matter? The man is dead, and we are where we are. Nobody will get anywhere debating Lincoln, Madison, Jefferson or Hamilton. Nobody will win the minds of the other side by wasting countless hours proclaiming history. This is about the future.
2. As a direct result of this part of history, it stupefies me to this day that we have a bunch of pansies in there running our states' governments. We can blame Washington, D.C. until the cows come home, and guess what? The cows…. they ain't a-comin' home!
We states have cow-towed to this for long enough. It is unbelievable that this movement stirs the amount of controversy that it does. How could a state legislator possibly suggest that decisions over his/her local constituents are better made by our Congress in Washington, D.C.?
In summary, blame Washington, D.C. all you want. I dole out my fair share of blame as well. But if this movement is to succeed it will be DESPITE our currently WEAK stances at the state level. We will need to focus on our own state legislators and governors to force change in the right direction, and if they refuse, we need to influence local elections. D.C. is hopeless. Some of our states show glimmers of hope, but most are not all that far from hopeless.
Better get to know your state politics – which is something you'll not find much about on the old boob-tube. Most people know their Congressmen, but not their state representatives. That is a reflection of what a bunch of weak noodles our state governments have become. They hold no power. They timidly raise their hands to proclaim opposition to the federal government, but only after the weakest among their peers ridicule them out of their own fear and/or brainwashing.
Some states are coming around, and I do see state legislators becoming emboldened. Will their efforts see the light of day? In some regards, they have, such as marijuana policies and Real ID. But in many respects, they are as weak as they ever were – if not more-so by the day.
Of course, who is to blame them? Didn't we let it get this far? This needs to be about the people first, the state governments second, and Washington, D.C. last – in that order.
Everybody is waiting around for what "bold" move might follow these hollow 10th Amendment Resolutions. What might it be?
One thing is for sure. If the people don't clamor at the doors of our state governments to PROVIDE the next move (rather than demand it), not much will happen.
I, for one, have continued to feel that the states must cut-off the supply of ammunition its people keep turning over to the federal government – i.e. taxes. Of course, who here thinks the states will really do such a thing? Not me. No state is going to do this without the overwhelming support of its citizens. So, until then, we will just continue to manufacture the bullets and send them to Washington, where they can and will be used against us.
There will be no solution without curbing our supply of tax dollars paid over to the federal government. It really IS…. that simple. We are paying them to control us. Lovely… Just lovely!
Lincoln did not want to end slavery. He said so on more than one occasion. In fact, he made several offers to the CSA to come back into the Union on the same footing as before the war. In other words, he wanted things as beforem, which meant that the South could keep its slaves. Although slavery was an obvious issue for the South, they fought for a more basic principle – that of economic freedom. They were being held in economic slavery to the North because of high tariffs, and keeping their slaves was not going to end their economic bondage. They were fighting for the same kind of freedom that the Thirteen Colonies had fought for. The mercantilism of the British Empire kept the colonies in economic bondage. For two years, Lincoln managed to keep slavery from being the main issue of the war. In his mind, cheap Southern raw materials for Northern industry and revenue were the issues. It was the radical abolitionists in the Republican Party and other radicals who forced him to use slavery as the poster issue of the war. Lincoln was related to slaveholders through his wife. These and many other reasons are why Beck should not choose the Lincoln Memorial for a rally.
"Organizing is fine, but without a solid intellectual alternative to Washington, D.C.-dominated politics, all Beck’s legions are likely to do is get riled up and vote a bunch of Republicans back into Congress."
I disagree. I think Beck is more libertarian than conservative, and definitely has a better appreciation for the 10th Amendment than many conservative commentators. I think his viewers and listeners absorb and agree with that libertarianism. If they run for office and win as Republicans, isn't that a good thing?
Rick,
Sure, libertarian leaders would be a good thing. But the incentives in Washington, D.C. are all wrong. Not even Ron Paul could change that.
Until people remember that the states and the feds were supposed to compete with each other for power, using the Constitution as a guide, we will never change those incentives.
My fear is that Beck is so focused on the national level he is neglecting the fact that without robust state sovereignty, there is nothing to check the growth and power of the federal government, no matter how well-intentioned our leaders may be.
I wish Beck had just encouraged the 9-12 and Tea Party groups to go out and take over their local governments. Then move up to the state level and fight D.C. until they beat the feds back into their constitutional box.
That's the only way we can win.
Whoops. I should have hit "Reply" before submitting my last post. It's below. :^)
I could be wrong, but I think Beck is trying to get people involved on ALL levels, not just the national level.
I also think he would be VERY open to joining this 10th Amendment effort if approached. I came across this site by accident and was, frankly, amazed at how stupid I have been until now. Sure, I was all for the 10th Amendment being followed (as Beck has said he is), but it never occurred to me that doing that *and nothing else* solves almost all of our problems (ending the Fed is a close second). I believe finding a way to implement a proper understanding of the 10th Amendment is the single most important thing any of us (including Glenn Beck) can do to save the country. What is needed is more exposure for the effort, and Beck is the perfect avenue for that. Instead of criticizing him for not going far enough, we need to encourage him to go further and take up this cause. If we can get his ear, I think we'll get his assistance.
Rick – an interesting point. I do believe it's essential to encourage people – to give them positive feedback and keep them moving in the right direction. That's a must with Beck. I also feel it's essential to point out shortcomings, and I think Josh made a pretty good case here in his post.
But – I can absolutely assure you that Glenn Beck and his entire team are well-aware of the 10th Amendment movement. He's cited the Tenth Amendment Center in a number of his reports on Fox News Channel, our PR people have been in contact with his team repeatedly with phone calls, emails and press releases, and I've personally talked with his producers a number of times regarding a potential interview on either his radio or his TV show. Just hasn't happened yet.
So, if you want the 10th Amendment movement to grow, and believe that Beck is in a position to help make that happen – get on the phone or send an email to let him know that you want this issue discussed, and that you want him to interview someone from here at the Tenth Amendment Center!
I don't think he is as interested in this as we'd hope. Fox news disappoints me. That network and its programs are too entrenched in national politics. It is where they get their publicity, acclaim and money. They could just about care less when it comes to states' rights. It provides no avenues for them to sway national policy. They have as much stake in trying to control the nation as the leftist media outlets. That's why, over there, they soft-peddle the hypocrisy that broke the GOP and still press along with their GOP-promoting agendas.
I certainly prefer Fox over MSNBC and CNN, but in the end, I have concluded that Fox is still "one of them." At best, it represents the lesser of two evils.
Good luck getting Fox on board. I've tried, as well.