Sanity-Fear Rally

I didn't see it live, and I haven't seen much about it since, but the crowd was far bigger than I expected and the coverage has been mild, to say the least. It really does seem to have been apolitical, and not a counter to Beck or Palin's efforts.

Here's where I think they scored a point though...

One bit of coverage I did see was Jon Stewart speaking about how "these are HARD times, but these are not END times." That really seemed to get the people's attention, and I think it was an intentional swipe at Beck, who routinely refers to much of what he sees happening in the American political landscape today as a harbinger of the "end of days"... at least for this Republic.

Jambo said it best some time ago when he said that any comparison between what is happening now in America and those crisis points in American history when the actual Republic itself was at risk are silly, inaccurate, and counter-productive to the conservative cause. Each of the examples that Beck loves to give of the efforts that "progressives" have made to erode the republican nature of our nation are (if they are real at all) FIXABLE, at any point now or in the future. Social Security, the SEC, health care reform, US involvement in the UN, increased size and scope of Federal regulation and cost... all can be FIXED within the scope of only a few years of GOP control of Congress and the White House. This is NOT an unreachable goal, and it should be the focus... the sole focus... of the GOP, so that they can SHOW beyond a reasonable doubt that conservative government WORKS as the founders intended.

Beck's "vision" of what American federal government should be might be a perfectly reasonable view of conservative, small-government planning and execution... but his reasoning behind WHY it is necessary is convoluted and one-sided, and that makes it difficult to sell to mainstream America. God's unhappiness at liberal American policy matters is not a good defense for conservative political goals... but a functioning socio-political and economic machine IS. More money in the common man's pocket IS. Better job opportunity for more people IS a great selling point for the conservative agenda.

Beck's rally might have been about rediscovering America's traditional Judeo-Christian values and ethics, and not about conservative political goals... but that message got lost in the hype that Beck brought with him to the rally, and (probably more so than anything else) that the liberal left attached to him, regardless of intent. What I find most distressing about the whole Beck phenomenon is that he does such a GREAT job of making the libs look like idiots on his radio and TV shows, but (in the same program) will give them more ammunition to use against him tomorrow by talking SO MUCH about how Obama, Pelosi and Reid are working to destroy the Republic, or to unravel the very fabric of our society, when what they are actually doing is making HIS CASE FOR HIM. There is no better evidence that liberal policies and progressive agendas DO NOT WORK TODAY than what is provided by the very liberals and progressives currently in office right now. Why resort to making questionable references to theology, or the lack thereof, within the modern Democratic platform?

I have been so disappointed in the Glenn Beck program lately that I haven't listened to him all week. For the hour I get to hear him, there is about 15 minutes of stuff I LOVE... and 45 minutes of irrelevance and "fluff" that does nothing to further his stated goals. I sure hope that changes Wednesday morning...