Memo To Glenn Beck: There IS A Difference In Democrats & Republicans
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 5:25PM Bill Bennett wrote an excellent piece on Glenn Beck and his countless assertions that Democrats and Republicans are really one in the same. I long ago grew tired of this suggestion from Beck and I'm happy to see Dr. Bennett take him to task for it. I wrote a similar piece a few months ago without naming anyone specifically. Beck does a lot of good work for the conservative cause, but he marginalizes those good works when he makes such absurd, reckless statements.
Here is Bill Bennett's column that was posted to National Review Online yesterday:
There’s a lot to say about CPAC. This morning the major papers are highlighting Glenn Beck’s speech. I like Glenn a lot and I think he has something to teach us. But not what he offered last night.
Analogizing his own struggles with alcohol to the problems of our polity and in our politics, he said, “Hello, my name is the Republican party, and I have a problem!” “I’m addicted to spending and big government.” ”It is still morning in America.” ”It just happens to be kind of a head-pounding, hung-over, vomiting-for-four-hours kind of morning in America. And it’s shaping up to be kind of a nasty day. But it is still morning in America.” And, again, “I believe in redemption, but the first step to getting redemption is you’ve got to admit that you’ve got a problem. I have not heard people in the Republican party yet admit that they have a problem.”
Glenn is among the best talkers in the business of broadcast. I am not sure he’s a very good listener.
First, there is a good and strong tradition in alcohol and drug treatment that personal failings should not be extrapolated into the public sphere; that too often when this is done, conclusions are reached based on the wrong motives and, often, the wrong analysis. Glenn has made that mistake here and taken to our politics a cosmologizing of his own deficiencies. This is not a baseless criticism; they are his own deficiencies that he keeps publicly redounding to and analogizing to. It is wrong and he is wrong.
Second, for him to continue to say that he does not hear the Republican party admit its failings or problems is to ignore some of the loudest and brightest lights in the party. From Jim DeMint to Tom Coburn to Mike Pence to Paul Ryan, any number of Republicans have admitted the excesses of the party and done constructive and serious work to correct them and find and promote solutions. Even John McCain has said again and again that “the Republican party lost its way.” These leaders, and many others, have been offering real proposals, not ill-informed muttering diatribes that can’t distinguish between conservative and liberal, free enterprise and controlled markets, or night and day. Does Glenn truly believe there is no difference between a Tom Coburn, for example, and a Harry Reid or a Charles Schumer or a Barbara Boxer? Between a Paul Ryan or Michele Bachmann and a Nancy Pelosi or Barney Frank?
Third, to admit it is still “morning in America” but a “vomiting for four hours” kind of morning is to diminish, discourage, and disparage all the work of the conservative, Republican, and independent resistance of the past year. The Tea Partiers know better than this. I don’t think they would describe their rallies and resistance as a bilious purging but, rather, as a very positive democratic reaction aimed at correcting the wrongs of the current political leadership. The mainstream media may describe their reactions as an unhealthy expurgation. I do not.
A year ago, we were told the Republican party and the conservative movement were moribund. Today they are ascendant, and it is the left and the Democratic party that are on defense — even while they are in control. That’s quite an amazing achievement. But anyone who knows the history of this country and its political movements should not be surprised. America has a long tradition of antibodies that kick in. From Carter we got Reagan. And from Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama we took back a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, with midterm elections on the horizon that Republicans and conservatives are actually excited about, not afraid of.
To say the GOP and the Democrats are no different, to say the GOP needs to hit a recovery-program-type bottom and hang its head in remorse, is to delay our own country’s recovery from the problems the Democratic left is inflicting. The stakes are too important to go through that kind of exercise, which will ultimately go nowhere anyway — because it’s already happened.
The first task of a serious political analyst is to see things as they are. There is a difference between morning and night. There is a difference between drunk and sober. And there is a difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. To ignore these differences, or propagate the myth that they don’t exist, is not only discouraging, it is dangerous.
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Reader Comments (8)
Amen brother Bill. I've screamed at my TV more than once watching Beck make this assertion. Total bunk.
Totally agree. Beck has turned me off with this exact allegation. I have lost respect for him because the suggestion is so untrue. The Republicans are far from perfect, but to suggest Jim Demint is akin to Harry Reid is just completely intellectually dishonest.
Beck is an asset, but I agree that he goes overboard on the "both parties suck" thing. He seems way to smart to actually believe that, but who knows. I've often wondered if he has another agenda that he is pushing his audience toward.
All that said, he's done far more good than bad for the conservative cause.
Beck is trying to wake up the GOP. They have abandoned the principals that most Americans agree with. They get beat up under the ALinsky tactics of the left and they have no balls. The GOP needs to grow a set and quick.
This post is way too long. I wouldn't waste my time if I were you. You've read Horsebutt's crap before, he just goes on and on and says nothing. What a loser!
This is a tough one, Beck and Bennett, two men I respect. First let me say that what Jeff said is very significant. To compare the two parties would require you to choose a particular time frame to make the comparison. Remember, we chose John McCain as our best offering in '08. The Republican Party was asleep.
Good Republicans have been voted into office, this was good. We didn't hold them accountable, this was bad. Conservatives citizens have a clearer view of what they want in a political representative now than they(we) have had in many years. Tea Party rallies have had a lot to do with this, but Glenn Beck has played a major part also.
I would go as far as to say that the change of attitude we see in conservatives today would not have happened without Glenn Beck. People pay attention when they get pissed-off, and Glenn Beck gets people pissed-off. Liberals stay pissed-off, so they are very alert to what is going on in this country.
Although the two parties have many things in common(self-serving narcissist), no rational thinking person could say there is no actual difference in them. When I hear a conservative say there is no difference, I understand that it is their frustration showing, or in the case of Glenn Beck, I think he is looking at it from a much more distant view.
If you are mingling with politicians of the two parties and focusing on the current issues, you will see huge differences. However, if you are looking at it from the perspective of the Founding Fathers, with little concern to the changes in party beliefs or the "ins and outs" of legislative gamesmanship over the years that have led us to government we have today, I can see how a person might see only minute differences. Republicans have had chances to make major changes in the direction of this country. With the exception of Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms, and a few others, it was not as important as being non-partisan, able to reach across the aisle, getting favorable press.
I really like Bill Bennett, but his next to last paragraph is wrong and his last paragraph is meaningless.
Vote Republican and hold them ACCOUNTABLE, that is how to keep them from looking like Democrats.
I stated my opinion above, but I'd like to clarify it further. I nominated Glenn Beck as one of my Top Five Conservatives of 2009. I did so because I believed he had done tremendous good for the conservative movement. There is no doubt he had then and has since.
I certainly don't dispute that there are problems with the GOP - I acknowledge them. As a true conservative, I've been disgusted with many of the legislative decisions and spending over the last several years. However, suggesting that their is no real difference in Republicans and Democrats is off-base in my view.
Here's how I see it. Democrats and Republicans are both driving us off a cliff. Democrats are going 100 miles per hour, and Republicans are going 10 miles per hour. Both are going to kill us in their current form, but one is far more lethal than the other as it stands today.
To not acknowledge this truism and the constant battle to keep people engaged and onboard is a disservice to the conservative cause.
Just my two cents.
Well let's just jump on the old band wagon and pretend that we are all better now, since we
said no a few times to the Democrats....The Republicans are by no means out of the doghouse
and must show a lot more backbone in their dna for me to be convinced they are for real and in control of the situation . ...Only two days has passed since the break and we have Collins ,
Snow and Brown hopping on board for the job's bill that Reid scrapped last week and rewrote
behind closed doors....Mr. Bennett, I'm so sorry your ego was bruised a bit by Beck's speech, i've said the same thing over and over for the last eight years and don't feel the better for it today....
Your last paragraph is so completely irrational and irrelevant and demeans your complete article...
Glenn Beck is a showman. Sometimes he gets to caught up in his theatrics to make the point the Conservatives want to hear, but he usually gets around to his point. The GOP has got to take the bull by the horns and let America know that they have a plan to correct the bull-headed plans of the Democrats to push their Socialist ideas on America.