Sherline: 'Mad as Hell'

By Harris R. Sherline
September 3, 2010 6:42 AM
5 Comments

Paraphrasing the words of Howard Beale in the 1976 movie Network, an estimated three- hundred thousand Americans gathered at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor Rally on the Capitol Mall in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, August 28, declaring in effect, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore."

The event was co-sponsored by the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, promoted by Freedom Works and actively supported by the Tea Party movement.

The date of the rally was the anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech, was used by many liberals as a further example of Beck's feckless thinking and conduct.

But who better to organize a mass meeting of hundreds of thousands of frustrated Americans than a man who rose from the ashes of his own dissolute life to remake himself from an alcoholic and drug abuser with no education into a highly articulate, informed leader of a movement to return to God.

No one, not even the most extreme of Beck's critics, can deny the importance of hundreds of thousands of Americans proclaiming the equivalent of "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore" on the Capitol Mall.

Their collective voice will ultimately be heard at the ballot boxes around the nation in November, and the liberal media and left-leaning political leaders are obviously very concerned about their looming loss of power in the next election, as the American Right replaces them in the Capitol's corridors of power early next year.

Contrary to the claims of Beck's critics, he is a man of the people, in spite of his financial success of recent years. Beck also appears to be fearless. He says what he believes regardless of what anyone (including the media) may think or say, as he works tirelessly at trying to educate the public about our nation's roots and its place in history, while imploring people to return to a values and religious based approach to their lives.

In interviews, Beck emphasizes that he is not interested in running for public office, that he hates politics, and that his motivation is not about making money, although he readily admits that he has been highly successful.

As we see him today, it's difficult to visualize him as a deadbeat alcoholic and drug abuser, uneducated and without any ambition or purpose in life.

Beck has come a very long way over the past 20 years, which he attributes to his second wife Tania and his two daughters, one of whom has Cerebral Palsy. Along the way he turned to religion, becoming baptized as a Mormon in 2000.

Commenting on Beck's event at the Capitol Mall, political analyst Rich Galen noted: "As you have now heard 1,279 times, Glen Beck's 'Restoring Honor' rally at the Lincoln Memorial was held on the 47th anniversary of Dr. King's speech. ... Glenn Beck created a non-political (he asked that no one bring protest signs and almost no one did); pro-American, and pro-religious event. ... The attempt by the Left to paint the event as racist was pretty seriously undermined by the appearance and speech by the niece of Martin Luther King, Alveda King, a noted Black conservative activist.... Then came the claims that Beck's call for a religious renaissance in the United States was somehow anti-Constitutional. The First Amendment, as you well know, does not forbid the mention of God in American life -- even official American life. In fact, it appears to say just the opposite: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (emphasis added).' Our Declaration of Independence ends with these words: 'And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.' Renewing our 'reliance on the protection of Divine Providence' doesn't seem like such a bad idea, even after 234 years."

Beck's rally has been characterized as just one example of the reawakening of everyday American citizens who are strongly opposed to the direction the nation's political leaders have taken the nation since Obama's election as president. The U.S. Citizens Association noted: "...their shared cause is to reclaim our nation for our children and grandchildren from politicians and government officials who are mortgaging our future on limitless, bad-debt credit cards that future generations will be paying for decades to come..."

Critics and criticism notwithstanding, Glenn Beck is likely to become an increasingly important player on the American scene.

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/2010/0 ... s-hell.php