I've written a lot about Glenn Beck, mostly mocking him, mostly calling him a moron. I have to admit that I watched his Restoring Honor rally this morning on Ç-span and have come to the conclusion that he is far from moronic. In fact, he may be one of the smartest men in America.
If you didn't watch it live, you may not believe it when I say that the Restoring Honor rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial was one of peace and unity. If you have been living under a rock. If you didn't know about all of the hateful things that Beck and his ilk, Palin and the teabaggers have been spewing the past few years, you would have thought it was just another Martin Luther King Jr. memorial event preaching tolerance and unity.
I kept waiting for the hate. There were warnings of darkness and sermons espousing religion and the need to turn to God. Glenn Beck even went so far as to include the Muslim religion when speaking to the large crowd. He caught himself and added something like, worship wherever you want, as long as they don't tell you to kill other people.
Beck was in rare form today; breaking into sermon; fighting back "tears"; he has realized his true calling as Television Evangelist. I kept waiting for him to say that there would be a tithing basket passed around. I think his followers were surprised by the content, speakers, and performers filling the stage. The racists among them must have been seething quietly seeing the non-white, non-redneck people Beck surrounded himself with today. A majority of speakers were African American, as were the performers.
My theory is this: Beck has actually been listening to what people have been saying about him, and his agenda. He may realize that this divisive strategy that he and the Republicans have embraced since Obama took office may backfire in November. The black vote is important if the Republicans want to take control and he knows that. I believe he took this opportunity to pull a switch on his followers. It's common knowledge that Republicans think they are the party of God; G.W. Bush always said that God wanted him to be President. So, realizing that his followers, including the tea-partiers are, for the most part, religious people, he decided to make his rally all about God.
Not only has he succeeded in changing the topic to God, but he also hijacked the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. If he and the Republicans can win back the "moral majority", and at the same time change the rhetoric away from race, theoretically they could gain votes from some who've been turned off by the hate-filled party of "no".
If that's his plan, then I'll admit he's one smart guy. I don't believe there was a hint of sincerity behind anything he said today...it was nothing more than an evangelical revival under a very big tent.