Saturday, August 28, 2010

Glenn Beck - the antithesis of MLK


Glenn Beck, whose "I have a scheme" speech and teabagger rally is scheduled for today in DC, tries to take the mantle of civil rights as his theme, while he's made a career out of demonizing progressive causes like ... civil rights.

This looks to be a 'very white' event, particularly after seeing the Maine Tea Party giving instructions to it's members on how to stay out of black neighborhoods, 'especially at night' and how to talk with minorities.

C&L:
It is thus, in essence, a civil-rights march for white people. Or more particularly, for right-wing white people who feel threatened by the growing presence and power of the nonwhite population.

Of course, they don't put it that way. They know that race talk will just get them called out for what this is all really about. So they talk about "government oppression" and "taking away our freedoms" and "preserving the Constitution" and "what it means to be American". Strip these down to the bare bones -- especially when you peel away the layers of illogic required to support these claims -- and what's really at issue here is a black man leading nonwhite minorities to power, which is always perceived by authoritarians as a sign of their loss of power.

Back in the day, conservative white extremists including some Christian clergy called MLK a 'communist.' Sound familiar? Yeah, Glenn Beck and his minion have repeatedly referred to Obama as a socialist and communist.

(BTW, LDS PW commenter, Dicentra - a Glenn Beck fan, may be interested to know that the campaign to discredit MLK as a Communist - see above flyer - was led by none other than the Morman Church's future president, Ezra Taft Benson. And Benson, in fact, was close friends with Glenn Beck's guru, W. Cleon Skousen -- who was also known to smear King). HT: C&L

In fact, these all-white teabagger marches remind you of something?

Glenn Beck and the tea party stand against everything MLK and the civil rights movement were for.

UPDATE:
Fox News specifically selected a black reporter, Deneen Borelli, to report from the Beckapalooza. Video of the event showed a sea of white people.

That's exactly the tactic used by the Mufreesboro teabagger "march against the Mosque." Out of 400 teabaggers, there were 2 blacks, a 99.5% white crowd. Guess who the representative speakers were at the courthouse? The 2 black people. Us racist??? We have black people here, SEE!!!!


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