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Southern Avenger

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Friday, September 25, 2009

Why Mark Levin Hates Glenn Beck

Posted by Jack Hunter on Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 1:16 AM

When FOX News host Glenn Beck said during an interview with Katie Couric this week, “John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama,” his comments made headlines. Beck explained that “McCain is this weird progressive like Theodore Roosevelt was.” Beck laid out this view in better detail on his television program earlier this month:

I am becoming more and more libertarian every day, I guess the scales are falling off of my eyes, as I’m doing more and more research into history and learning real history. Back at the turn of the century in 1900, with Teddy Roosevelt—a Republican—we started this, “we’re going to tell the rest of the world,” “we’re going to spread democracy,” and we really became, down in Latin America, we really became thuggish and brutish. It only got worse with the next progressive that came into office—Teddy Roosevelt, Republican progressive—the next one was a Democratic progressive, Woodrow Wilson, and we did … we empire built. The Democrats felt we needed to empire build with one giant global government ... The Republicans took it as, we’re going to lead the world and we’ll be the leader of it … I don’t think we should be either of those. I think we need to mind our own business and protect our own people. When somebody hits us, hit back hard, then come home.

Beck is trying to explain how Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican precursor to what historians call “liberal internationalism,” a foreign policy view that contends the role of the U.S. is to intervene around the globe to advance liberal objectives. This progressive doctrine, later called “Wilsonian” after Woodrow Wilson, was intended to “make the world safe for democracy,” to quote our 28th president. Wilsonian globalism was embraced fully by George W. Bush, and as Beck notes, was also a guiding philosophy for his could-have-been successor, John McCain. In their application, there is very little difference between “neoconservative” foreign policy and “liberal internationalism,” and both views are progressive in origin.

Preferring to keep his audience in the dark on such distinctions, neoconservative talk host Mark Levin was angry that Beck would dare shine a light on them. Said Levin this week:

McCain is no conservative… but to say that he would be worse than a president who’s a Marxist, who’s running around the world apologizing for our nation, who’s slashing our defense budget… to say he would be worse is mindless… incoherent, as a matter of fact. There’s our 5 PMer on FOX.

It should be noted that Beck’s FOX News program airs at 5 PM EST.

Who else does Levin consider mindless? He continues:

I don’t know who people are playing to; I don’t know why they’re playing to certain people. Ron Paul’s another one ... this fascination with Ron Paul. Ron Paul, who blames America! American “imperialism,” quote, unquote, for the attacks on 9/11. How can any conservative embrace that? And yet the 5 PMer does.

For eight years, hosts like Levin and even Glenn Beck promoted full-blown neoconservatism without ever calling it by that name. For these mainstream pundits, conservatism simply equaled neoconservatism, and during the Bush years there was no talk of limited government, no concern about “socialism” and no real worries about anything else, other than the War on Terror. The Republican Party was a single issue party; Ron Paul was considered crazy, Joe Lieberman was considered cool—and government exploded.

But much to Levin’s chagrin, that impenetrable neoconservative unity no longer exists. Unlike Levin, Beck now claims “the scales are falling off of my eyes,” and he now questions old assumptions about foreign policy, the value of the GOP, the worth of the two-party system, or even if McCain would have been any better than Obama. Conservative columnist George Will once cheered Bush’s foreign policy, but now thinks it’s time to bring the troops home from both Iraq and Afghanistan. When Sarah Palin spoke in Hong Kong this week, a Wall Street Journal headline read, “Palin, Sounding Like Ron Paul, Takes on the Fed.” Few conservatives get excited by Joe Lieberman anymore. But many are starting to talk like Ron Paul.

The attacks on Beck by Levin are a reflection of what’s happening on the American Right as a whole, where the old fools’ game of merely corralling grassroots conservatives into the Republican Party is suffering from a severe shortage of fools. I’m not saying that Beck is an all-around, reliable conservative figure, nor do I believe the Republican Party is going to start seriously listening to Paul in the future, but there are at least now, finally, tiny slivers of truth making their way into the mainstream, thanks in no small part to a handful of celebrity truth-seekers, no matter how eccentric or inconsistent they may be.

And if there’s one thing we can be sure of—there would be no tea parties, no town hall protests, no marches on Washington, no questioning foreign policy, no attacking the Federal Reserve, no new-and-improved Glenn Beck and no new respect for Ron Paul—if John McCain had won the election. The neoconservative agenda would have continued, undisturbed, and according to plan. And something tells me Mark Levin would have preferred to keep it that way.

Topics: National Politics

Comments (17) RSS

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Excellent and on point! Mark Levin is a fool...little does he think about tyranny being a part of the neoconservative agenda. He is so pro-Israel that he cannot fathom our country having a non-interventionist foreign policy.

Posted by Mike Koffenberger on September 25, 2009 at 2:58 AM | Report this comment

Glenn Beck,” Libertarian at Heart” GMFB! It’s about time he learned some U.S. history. But he can’t keep those facts straight. A Libertarian? He supports pre-empted interventionist war; he supports Israel and the neoconservative Anti-Islamic crusade in the Middle East, the Drug War, he is a Pro-life zealot that favors Isolationist markets, he supported the Patriot Act and Bail-Outs. If Glenn Beck and Fox News ever supported Ron Paul and real conservative’s values it would be on 24/7. But NO, instead of issues that should be really important to the American people it’s all about ACORN not issues like Audit the Fed and ending the wars, bringing the troops home; Glenn Beck is a neocon shill and a crying distraction from what really matters! Don’t be a Fox News Sheeple.

Posted by gadsen on September 25, 2009 at 3:50 AM | Report this comment

Mark Levin is more than just a fool... He's a fool and a tool. A Rush Limbaugh wannabe. A narcissist with blinders on. I'm embarassed to think about how naively I allowed myself to get sucked into the Democratic-Republican party monopoly of "what is the better way to bankrupt America".

Posted by thirty3na3rd on September 25, 2009 at 6:28 AM | Report this comment

Gadsen -- Sounds to me like Beck is coming around, he's clearly saying that he's changing his mind. Did you read the article?

Posted by jshaft00 on September 25, 2009 at 9:11 AM | Report this comment

well we'll be watching glennie just to make sure he's not an infiltraitor.........levin? = just another mindless idiot trying to convince you black is white and that wallpaper paste is a excellent nutritional supplement......awake!!!! sheeple awake!!!

Posted by axman on September 25, 2009 at 9:36 AM | Report this comment

" ... neoconservative talk host Mark Levin was angry ..."

Why don't you just substitute "Jew" for "neoconservative", Mr Avenger? Because you know that's what you mean.

Neocon isn't always a code word for Jew, but in your case, with Buchanan, Vidal, Sobran, Theodoracopulous, Brimelow (VDare), Sailer, etc, on your blogroll, it most certainly is.

Furthermore, look at the comments made by your readers. Yeah, Levin, he's so pro-Israel! Too bad he's not a follower of Cleon Skousen, like Beck, huh? Shouldn't you be linking to him also, Avenger?

Posted by sardonic on September 25, 2009 at 11:09 AM | Report this comment

Mark Levin is a fool. The scales are falling off and everyone is starting to question 9/11 and the Federal Reserve. People are starting to see that conspiracies are so far fetched as fools, like Limbaugh and Levin and to a certain degree Beck, think.

Posted by Kevin on September 25, 2009 at 11:20 AM | Report this comment

Go Beck!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so sick of being tied to the Neocons or progressives as opions. We need the old school reps and moderate dems as options as well

Posted by Frokert on September 25, 2009 at 12:07 PM | Report this comment

Mark Levin, Glen Beck ? The kernal says, a pox on both their houses.

Posted by the kernal on September 25, 2009 at 2:18 PM | Report this comment

I love it that the level of engagement on the right has been reduced to choosing which crazy white daddy to side with-Glenn or Mark. Keep whining your way to irrelevance boys!

Posted by Mario Delgado on September 25, 2009 at 6:26 PM | Report this comment

nothing wrong with being pro-israel. however, u.s. need not act as imperial world leader. personal liberty is main issue that levin fails to grasp. fortunately (it appears) beck has improved.

Posted by lbtbruce on September 25, 2009 at 10:33 PM | Report this comment

I live in Arizona and as far as I'm concerned John McCain is a turd. The only thing this man did was Viet Nam and so did a lot of us, he has did no thing for Arizona and the next time their is a good man running against Mr. McCain.

Posted by smokeyridgerunner on September 25, 2009 at 11:02 PM | Report this comment

I like Beck, but I disagree with his assessment of Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was a real, 'America first' conservative. He wasn't perfect, but he took on the global banking monopolies and won. His bust the trust campaign recognized that monopolies are bad for free markets. His preservation of national parks appealed to his love of nature. Being an avid hunter and a rancher he had the wisdom to see man's role as a steward of God's wilderness. Finally he had the vision to see the strategic importance of the Panama canal, and the guts to do something about it. He was probably the last president with any real testosterone to hold office. Yet for all his bravado, let's not forget he won the Nobel peace prize for mediating the war between Russia and Japan. When Teddy was shot during a campaign speech, he continued to finish up his speech when he noticed that he wasn't coughing up blood. I'd like to see Nancy Pelosi try that.

Wilson, though deserves all Americans eternal hatred, and Teddy hated him for the same reason that true conservatives hate this traitor, for selling us out to the banksters.

Posted by SevenThunders on September 26, 2009 at 1:36 AM | Report this comment

Levin is brilliant, but oh so jealous of Glenn's grass roots appeal. Get over yourself Mark, and work WITH us to save our country!

Posted by MN Nancy on September 26, 2009 at 4:22 AM | Report this comment

That's right, Sardy. When we call McCain a neocon, we're calling him Jewish. It's all over his face.

Codewords. Good to see the opposition has been reduced to *literal* playground tactics.

Posted by Nadorn85 on September 26, 2009 at 5:49 AM | Report this comment

Mark Levin is the attack dog for the Neo-Conservative war profiteers. This is a greedy bunch. More war, more money, cha ching. Body counts don't mean any thing to these subhumans. John is not following the script to the letter, so the attack dog has to bark him back into place.

Posted by jasanc on October 19, 2009 at 12:32 AM | Report this comment

What people fail to realize about Glenn Beck's statement is that McCain would have ended up doing many of the same things that Obama is doing (and which Teddy Roosevelt would have done based on his "Square Deal" philosophy). The difference is that Obama is doing it at breakneck speed and people are waking up and taking notice and acting to put on the brakes. He argues that if McCain were president these things would still be getting done to some extent, but in a slower, less noticeable fashion. McCain would have more success in slipping in programs like healthcare, cap and trade and more stimulous legislation - all of which he supports to some extent or another.

Students of history clearly understand that Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive. He spoke often about his "contempt" for the wealthy and how they should be allowed to spend their own money in ways that only benefited the state. In this he elevated the state over the individual - which is common totalitarian theme and a tenant of both communism and fascism.

Posted by DusterMH53J on October 19, 2009 at 10:28 AM | Report this comment

Jack Hunter
Columnist

The "Southern Avenger" Jack Hunter is a conservative commentator (WTMA 1250 AM talk radio) and columnist (Charleston City Paper) living in Charleston, South Carolina.