Why can't we give Beck his props?

[walldude]

Estimates vary from 87,000 to 150,000. Pretty good numbers compared to what I thought he would get. If we use the high estimate of 150,000 that's like .05% of America. Yeah half of a tenth of a percent of this country thinks Beck is AWESOME!

So yeah he gets props for the numbers. But other questions remain. What you see in quotes are Glen Beck's statements about what was going to happen on Saturday.

Was it the" defibrillator to the heart of America".. well.. not quite unless America consists of 150,000 whining white people complaining about Socialism in public park that they came to by public transportation and were protected by the public police dept...

Was it the "Woodstock of his generation" or the Anti-woodstock"? Uh.. not really no.

Will it be remembered as the" moment America turned the corner' in a hundred years? Well I guess it's possible if the future of America hinges on sales of "Don't Tread On Me" flags and buttons.

Will his event "grow the next George Washington and Abraham Lincoln".. Well.... no. You would have needed to find someone with an IQ in the triple digits.

Was there a miracle? YES! The people outnumbered the porta potties at a Republican event!!! Woo Hoo! Divine Intervention!

Did people "weep all day" at the event Beck called "divine providence" because he had no idea this was the anniversary of Dr King's speech? Well, only when they saw the price of bottled water.

Was it a "historic moment"? Did you see something happen that hadn't happened in 228 years? Miracles?Was there a Shockwave that changed America forever? Have we been restored? Was it the most important moment of this generation? Was it a perfect storm of Conservative values?

Well, nah. More like a fart in a hurricane.

On to the Koran burnings!!!! Yee Haw!!


Oh and sorry about yet another Beck thread I missed out yesterday, and today I'm sitting at the airport for the next 4 hours with nothing to do but read DU.

Edit to correct the percentage.. I knew I had it wrong I just hate math. And I'm lazy.

[RagAss]

1. I see stupid people.

[ladjf]

8. Rather than "stupid" , I see those attendees as victims of a devastating

"virus", carried by fascism, racism and religion. nt

[Catshrink]

10. add: a devastating fraud perpetrated by corporate fear mongering

[ladjf]

11. Yes. I was including that within the general term "fascism".

nt

[iamthebandfanman]

2. im just waiting on the go signal to burn down his compound

i mean, he is the 'son of god' after all.

last time someone claimed that, they had a firey death.

[wtmusic]

3. It means there are a small number of determined supporters

who still believe the Bush/Cheney myths.

Smaller, more vehement group of whackos next time.

[Catshrink]

4. Here are his props:

[BrklynLiberal]

7. lololol perfect.

[BootinUp]

5. 1/10 of 1/2 percent = 5/100 of a percent.

No need to make it sound like more than it is. These are people who actually spend time watching faux news and glen beck on cable. Does he deserve props for the success of his demogoguery? sure!

[Warpy]

6. He and a slick ad campaign funded by a handful of billionaires

managed to get the sheep to come out on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Somehow, I find that far less impressive than the grassroots antiwar demonstrations in 2001-2003 that brought out millions with no funding and little advertising beyond word of keyboard on the net.

However, give the devils their due, they did manage to motivate the stupidly angry to get onto buses and go to Washington.

[seabeyond]

9. why not just give the 1 million bachmann wants. 87k, give or take 9k.

78k-96k

then figure it out

[surrealAmerican]

12. I think you mean half of a tenth of a percent...

... assuming, of coarse, that those estimates are correct.

[walldude]

13. Thanks, I knew I had it wrong but I was just too lazy to do the real math..

[sharesunited]

14. They ran Hitler's Fatal Attraction on the Military Channel last night.

Beck's nationalistic orgy at the Lincoln Memorial reminded me of the Munich rallies.

[sofa king]

15. And the punchline is... it was a Gospel show!

I have no doubt whatsoever that many of the attendees saw more black people paraded across the stage that day than they have seen all year at home. All of them listened to music they would not have chosen to listen to, and listened to speakers they would ordinarily have walked away from.

From my point of view, that's awesome. Being forced to include people of color--even as the result of an ignorant mistake--is guaranteed to ablate the hardcore racists from the movement while watering down the rhetoric of the rest. Some will leave and plenty of others will be confused.

No person of color was deceived into believing they can actually be a part of that movement--there will be no line crossing by our party's most loyal and dependable demographic. But plenty of teabaggers saw a clumsy afterthought of an attempt to be inclusive--and once the figureheads they trust endorse such things, they will naturally endorse it themselves. Inclusiveness is the arch enemy of conservatism--it will kill the Tea Party, given time.

If you de-fang a fascist movement by removing the racism, is it even fascism anymore? Beck might someday deserve our thanks.

[lunatica]

16. It reminded me of the 1926 march of the KKK on Washington

These are the same types. They hate everything and everyone that isn't exactly like them. This crap isn't new. There's a lot less of them now though.

[okieinpain]

17. best beck post I've seen in the last couple of days. thanks. n/t.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Kudos, that's a good one

[onethatcares]

19. were there any interviews of the people as they left?

man in the street type things?

I am curious as to what these folks thought was going to happen against what happened.