What Is Their America?

Glenn Beck has been doing a fantastic job as chief fear-mongerer at Fox"News" since January, and some of his most ardent fans have taken him far too seriously and walked right up to the edge of doing things monumentally stupid. And with the vote on the Senate version of healthcare reform getting closer, the crazy in His Secondary Fatness'* pants is in full bloom.



I'm assuming that the leaflet that Beck holds up at the end of the clip is the Republicans version of healthcare reform.

But that's not what this post is about.

This isn't language used by just Beck, but he's a primary source for this type of crazy. The question is - what is the America that they fear losing? Is it the America where nothing is done? After all, one of the main reasons that so many in this country are taken aback by Barack Obama is that he is trying to get things done. He's not a vacation President like Bush was ( both pre and post Sept. 11th ) and Obama is taking on both international AND domestic issues in tandem with one another, a feat that Bush - on his best day - couldn't even begin to think of starting.

Conservatives aren't used to doing this much heavy lifting, only when their positions of power are directly threatened.

Is the America that Beck is afraid will disappear one that coddles to big business rather than listening to the voices of the people? Sure, he claims to be a champion of the people, but his entire "tea-bagger" movement is pillared by the very businesses that are strangling the citizens of this country. The teabaggers are sliting their own throats and smiling at the same time.

Is is xenophobia? Racism? The fear that people are becoming more and more educated as to the real history of this nation and not the heavily-edited Cliff Notes version peddled by conservatives? What is it?

I think it's a fear that he is going to be proven wrong - and he knows it.


( * Full credit should be given to my friend Rob Bokken for that new title for Glenn Beck )