My Thoughts On The Glenn Beck Rally

Originally Posted by Chico23231

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

Hilariously sad...but some people actually believe this lol

Originally Posted by firstdown

Thats considered breaking news for CNN? No wonder their rating has dropped so much over the years. He said it as his opinion and they cut the clip so short its not put into any kind context so who knows what else he talked about.

Originally Posted by Chico23231

Post Now - Stewart, Colbert to host rallies on Mall

Now thats a rally Im gonna try to make. Should be funny and not political, exactly like Becks.

Originally Posted by Chico23231

Come on now thats funny...if your muslim your proably be pretty offended. His opinion then is way off, but the thing is, his presentation of information comes across as if it is facts. He believes everything he says and thens trys to support it...I like what the guy says, the reason more people are not talking about it, is its not true. lol

Originally Posted by firstdown

He clearly says he thinks its closer to 10% and he also never used the word muslim and said Islamic terrorist. Not sure if there is a difference but CNN changed what he said from Islamic to Muslim. Whats up with that?

Originally Posted by 12thMan

I guess at the core my beef with both rallies was that they split people into different camps, which tends to breed cultish like behaviour. If conservatives just go on being conservative after a Beck rally and liberals continue to subscribe to the same liberal ideology lock and step following the Stewart rally, then what was actually accomplished? I don't need to march down to the National Mall to hear that Obama is a socialist or that all Republicans don't care about working class Americans, because I don't believe either is true. We're spoon fed this garbage from the time we're able to pick up a newspaper, or nowadays read a blog.

I'm convinced that most Americans are closer on many of the issues than they realize. They don't live their daily lives on some left or right spectrum, but rather a continuum. As a liberal, I can talk to any one of my conservative friends about searching for a job, how to prepare my taxes, planning for a wedding, or finding a good deal on a flat screen TV. You know, everyday normal shit. We all start from a similiar place in life. One day we're fresh out of school, later, if we're lucky we get married, then we look up and we're sending our kid(s) to college. I think that's kinda it in a nutshell. There will always be differences of opinion on the right approach to govern our nation, that's why we have two parties. But when did it become so god darned evil to disagree with one another? The age of cult personalities and divisive politics, I feel, is taking it's toll on our country and I refuse to willingly participate.

[rant over]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

FD, buddy, why arent more people talking about it?

Originally Posted by 12thMan

One of the greatest, well two greatest, things about living in Washington D.C. is we're home of the Washington Redskins. The other being Washington D.C. is the epicenter of American politics. Anyone or anything that matters has to come through D.C. to get the attention of the nation.

This weekend I attended one of the two MLK rallies, but not the Glenn Beck rally. However, a couple of my friends went to the Beck rally. They went not out of any allegiance or genuine support for Glenn Beck or his ideology, whatever that truly is, but out of curiosity and to get a sense of the pulse of the crowd. One friend sent me a text message from the Beck rally, as I was listening to Al Sharpton speak at the other one, whom I no big fan of either, saying they were singing the Black National Anthem at the Beck rally on the Mall. I knew right then and there that this guy is about to explode in a way unimaginble. Anytime a white man in America can gather African Americans to sing that song, he's tapped into something worth paying attention to. But that's a thought I don't want to explore right here and now.

A couple of things I noticed while riding Metro and observing those who attended Beck's rally, there wasn't the usual hateful signs and, for the most part, these seemed like your run of the mill concerned citizens, not your angry Tea Party types. Now I know that a large segment of the crowd certainly identifies with the Tea Party, and there were undoubtedly some good old boys there who don't like Obama, but the rally didn't have a strong Tea Party or political overtone from what I understand.

What I'm starting to realize, irrespective of my personal views of Beck's politics, is that he matters. The National Park Service have yet to release any official crowd size estimates gathered at the Mall, but I've heard numbers ranging from 87K to north of 100K. So basically, if you watch Fox news they'll report the crowd size around three hundred thousand and if you watch MSNBC they'll report a hundred thousand! Surely you know the drill by now, but that's not really the point here. Whatever the number, and it was a lot, Glenn Beck is suddenly a very influential figure in American politics. I suppose in a way that he wasn't prior to this large gathering and I dare say in a way that may thwart the liberal and progressive agenda in the future. That remains to seen.

In fact, Beck, and very cleverly so, neutralized partisan politics by talking about faith and God. Personally I'm not buying it, but guess what I don't need to. That's a subject that all Americans, regardless of political leanings or ethnic persuasion, can relate to and quite frankly stomach during a toxic political environment such as the one we're seeing in Washington right now.

Here's the thing, Genn Beck can talk about faith and God in a way that say, Tim Pawlenty as a presidential candidate, cannot. He can gather a crowd and rally thousands that Mitt Romney wouldn't even dare dream about. Ben Jealous, President of the NAACP, and Al Sharpton combined barely filled a high school football field of supporters just ten minutes away in a tribute to MLK. Even Sarah Palin and all of her groupies wouldn't have mustered a crowd that large.

What I'm getting at is that you don't gather that many thousands on the hallowed grounds of the Mall and still don't matter. It's going to be more diffucult for the liberal media types to dismiss Beck and portray him as some right wing loon who just wants to stir up hate and divide the American people. And as many of us on the left would hate to admit, this guy is starting to fill a void that has existed in our country for the past ten or fifteen years. That being the American people simply want nuts and bolts leadership and they want to feel they identify with their leaders. I think that's the void that has been left by the the previous Administration, the current Congress, Democrats and Republicans, and has proven to be a very difficult task even for President Obama, who just two years ago generated a Kennedyesque buzz across the country.

Now I don't expect this thread to go anywhere after, say, the third page or so I just wanted to voice my thoughts on this weekend's events after some reflection. I think we're experiencing a real political and cultural shift in our country right now and I think the ride is just beginning.

Originally Posted by 12thMan

I guess at the core my beef with both rallies was that they split people into different camps, which tends to breed cultish like behaviour. If conservatives just go on being conservative after a Beck rally and liberals continue to subscribe to the same liberal ideology lock and step following the Stewart rally, then what was actually accomplished? I don't need to march down to the National Mall to hear that Obama is a socialist or that all Republicans don't care about working class Americans, because I don't believe either is true. We're spoon fed this garbage from the time we're able to pick up a newspaper, or nowadays read a blog.

I'm convinced that most Americans are closer on many of the issues than they realize. They don't live their daily lives on some left or right spectrum, but rather a continuum. As a liberal, I can talk to any one of my conservative friends about searching for a job, how to prepare my taxes, planning for a wedding, or finding a good deal on a flat screen TV. You know, everyday normal shit. We all start from a similiar place in life. One day we're fresh out of school, later, if we're lucky we get married, then we look up and we're sending our kid(s) to college. I think that's kinda it in a nutshell. There will always be differences of opinion on the right approach to govern our nation, that's why we have two parties. But when did it become so god darned evil to disagree with one another? The age of cult personalities and divisive politics, I feel, is taking it's toll on our country and I refuse to willingly participate.

[rant over]