Blowing Smoke - Michael Wolraich [10]
These people are evil people that just have no respect for the republic in any way, shape or form and are going to fundamentally transform the nation ...38
And later:
What they’re laying the ground for, anything from the right—some awful event—I fear this government, this administration, has so much framework already prepared that they will seize power overnight before anybody even gives it a second thought.39
Beck has also expanded the victim role in the persecution element of the conspiracy. Beck’s persecuted are not only Christians and white people; they include all the “regular schmos” out there who don’t subscribe to radical Marxism. He explained:
This isn’t about Republicans vs. Democrats. This is about Republicans and Democrats and Independents against radicals, revolutionaries and anti-capitalist nut jobs . . . I’m going to continue to expose these connections and plans that are out of step with almost everybody in this country—unless you live in the basement of Nancy Pelosi’s house in the most radically progressive neighborhood in the country while eating arugula and roast beef sandwiches!j40
Notwithstanding the inanity of his insinuations, Beck is an even better storyteller than Bill O’Reilly, and his conspiracy fantasies are extraordinarily popular. Despite an undesirable 5:00 p.m. timeslot, Beck almost drew even in viewership with O’Reilly, and in January 2010, Americans voted him the nation’s second-favorite TV personality after Oprah Winfrey.41 Time magazine paid homage to his popularity by featuring his protruding tongue on its cover.42 Conservative leaders, taking note of his success, have been singing his praises and parroting his talking points. Employing cutting-edge technology, Sarah Palin touted Beck’s journalism on her Facebook page:
FOX News’ Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job this week walking America behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outlining who is actually running the White House . . . I invite all my friends to watch.k43
Rush Limbaugh came on Beck’s show, congratulated him on his excellent reporting, and declared:
All of these disasters are exactly what Obama wants. The more crises, the better. The more opportunity for government to say, “Let us come in and fix the problem.” . . . This is statism, totalitarianism versus freedom. And if these people are allowed to go where they want to go unchecked, then some people, a lot of people . . . will wake up one day and find, “My God, what the hell happened?”44
Between Beck, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, a host of commentators and politicians, and legions of angry bloggers, we are in the midst of a full-scale crazy blitz from the right. The atmosphere at Fox News has become so acrid that Daily Show comedian Jon Stewart called Bill O’Reilly “the most reasonable voice on FOX”—a distinction he compared to being “the thinnest kid at fat camp.”l45 It seems as if conservative commentators have been competing with one another to see who can spin the scariest conservative nightmare around every Democratic initiative: the bank and auto bailouts will lead to communism; same-sex marriage will lead to legalized polygamy, bestiality, and pedophilia; AmeriCorps is a fascist civilian force for rounding up conservatives; and on and on. But always, the people who make such arguments fall back on one or more of O’Reilly’s three tactics:
• Slippery slope: these policies lead the nation down the road to abomination.
• Secret plot: these policies are part of an evil conspiracy.
• Persecution: these policies discriminate against “us.”
Don’t Tread on Me
The tactics work. In October 2009, the Democracy Corps, a nonprofit political research group founded by Democratic political strategists James Carville and Stan Greenburg, conducted a