With a whimper...

Stop the presses, Glenn Beck sobs again. This time while listening to...Paul Anka?




This is a good example of how he and his audience fetishises a long lost "good ol' days" fantasy world where everyone was responsible and took care of themselves and didn't have the government taking what they had earned. For most of us, of course, this world never existed. But many people still cling to the idea that America was better back in the 50's or so, when it was segregated and dominated by religion and on the brink of nuclear war.

This fetish dovetails nicely with what these people think is in store for America's future. Democracy Corp, a Democratic polling and consulting firm, studied the beliefs and opinions of the Teabag protesters that were showing up at town halls and rallies around the country this summer, and found that they live in a virtual alternative reality;

First and foremost, these conservative Republican voters believe Obama is deliberately and ruthlessly advancing a ‘secret agenda’ to bankrupt our country and dramatically expand government control over all aspects of our daily lives. They view this effort in sweeping terms, and cast a successful Obama presidency as the destruction of the United States as it was conceived by our founders and developed over the past 200 years. This concern combines with a profound sense of collective identity. They readily identify themselves as a minority in this country - a minority whose values are mocked and attacked by a liberal media and class of elites. They also believe they possess a level of knowledge and understanding when it comes to politics and current events, one gained from a rejection of the mainstream media and an embrace of conservative media and pundits such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, which sets them apart even more.

I have written about this belief before; that the angry, populist sentiment being stoked by Beck is a kind of fusion of quasi libertarian orthodoxy, combined with conspiracy theory and god ole' American rebelliousness. And that's pretty scary, because people like Beck and the Teabaggers don't just have a problem with Obama; they have a problem with how society has been organized and run for the last hundred years.