What I Saw at the Glenn Beck Rally

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advertisements GA_googleFillSlot("left1"); GA_googleFillSlot("left2"); GA_googleFillSlot("left3"); GA_googleFillSlot("left4"); GA_googleFillSlot("left5"); Print|Email Reason.tv: What We Saw at the Glenn Beck Rally in DC

August 28, 2010

On August 28, 2010, Fox News host Glenn Beck held his "Restoring Honor" rally at thefoot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The aim of theevent, explained the lachrymose TV personality, was to "comecelebrate America by honoring our heroes, our heritage and ourfuture."

As the WashingtonPost reports,

"For too long, this country has wandered in darkness, and wehave wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning," Becksaid, at times pacing at the memorial. "We have had moments ofbrilliance and moments of darkness. But this country has spent fartoo long worried about scars and thinking about the scars andconcentrating on the scars.

"Today," he continued, "we are going to concentrate on the goodthings in America, the things that we have accomplished - and thethings that we can do tomorrow. The story of America is the storyof humankind."

Despite the presence of former Gov. Sarah Palin and many TeaParty trappings, the event was not political, or at least not inany conventional sense. Rather, the speakers called for bringingreligion into the public square and using it as the guiding forcein all aspects of American life.

Reason.tv was on hand to take in the day and talk with someof thethousands of people who showed up (crowd estimates wereunavailable at the time of this writing, though the crowd feltthinner than the one at lastyear's Tea Party rally). Most of the people we talked to wereopenly skeptical of politicians of both major parties and agreedstrongly with the religious bent of the rally, often arguing thatsome sort of religious orientation was necessary for what that sawas a return to national greatness.

"What We Saw at the Glenn Beck Rally in DC" was shot by JimEpstein with help from Josh Swain. Edited by Epstein and MeredithBragg. Hosted by Nick Gillespie.

Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable iPod, HD and audioversions of this and all our videos.

Help Reason celebrate its next 40 years. Donate Now!

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Try Reason's award-winning print edition today! Your first issue is FREE if you are not completely satisfied.

← OK, So Three Hours of Beck… | Main | That's Rich, Frank → See all 318 comments | Leave a comment Anonymous|8.28.10 @ 8:17PM|#

The video... it does nothing.

reply to this SIV|8.28.10 @ 8:26PM|#

Whaddya expect..it's the weekend. Only guy working is the onenot on salary with an underwater California mortgage.

reply to this hmm|8.28.10 @ 11:15PM|#

So everyone?

reply to this BeltwayLurker|8.28.10 @ 8:42PM|#

They made their Jew work on Saturday. What else would youexpect.

reply to this Bruce Majors|8.29.10 @ 10:32AM|#

I don't think Nick is Jewish.

reply to this MWG|8.29.10 @ 1:22PM|#

...let alone a FULL Jew.

reply to this //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == '|') document.write("&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"); else document.write(unescape(l[i]));} //]]> |8.28.10 @ 8:27PM|#

Sounds exactly as boring as going to church.

Still i do find it funny that Nick and film crew got trickedinto going to church on a Saturday.

reply to this Bruce Majors|8.29.10 @ 10:37AM|#

I went down the day before and heard the sound check which washeavy heavy R&B/gospel music. I thought, kewl, it's going to bea soul-a-palooza. I was disappointed, though I spent the time beingfollowed around by the Daily Beast(http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-28/bruce-majors-an-unlikely-tea-partier/)so I missed the contet of the speeches (yes, yes I know, shamelessnarcissism, but it really salves the wounds of having Rachel Madcowsmear you as a racist).

My vote is next year they up the music to speech ratio to 2 or 3to 1.

reply to this M.|8.28.10 @ 8:31PM|#

Beck's speech - and the tone of the entire event - was veryTocquevillean.

reply to this //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == '|') document.write("&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"); else document.write(unescape(l[i]));} //]]> |8.29.10 @ 10:50AM|#

Which is why I like it - you can't have a society of individualsdedicated to their own 'satisfaction' alone, or the necessarysecond premise of individual 'responsibility' will never fall intoplace. That's where you get modern liberalism - selfish libertinesin the social sphere, while insisting on society's enabling theireconomic whims (healthcare is a RIGHT, etc.). Your right andobligation to fulfil your moral responsibilities should take centrestage, if you want to enable self-direction in all directions.

reply to this Warty|8.28.10 @ 8:33PM|#Man is the onlyPatriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under hisown flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinousuniformed assassins on hand at heavy ex pense to grab slices ofother peoples countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his.And in the intervals between cam­paigns, he washes the blood offhis hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man, with hismouth.Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Ani mal. Heis the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. Heis the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts histhroat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard ofthe globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brothers path tohappiness and heaven. He was at it in the time of the Caesars, hewas at it in Mahomet's time, he was at it in the time of theInquisition, he was at it in France a couple of cen turies, he wasat it in England in Mary's day, he has been at it ever since hefirst saw the light, he is at it today in Crete (as per thetelegrams quoted above) he will be at it somewhere else tomor row.The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they aregoing to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seemsquestionable taste.Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is opento dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is theUnreasoning Animal. Note his history, as sketched above. It seemsplain to me that whatever he is he is not a reasoning animal. Hisrecord is the fantastic record of a maniac. I consider that thestrongest count against his intelligence is the fact that with thatrecord back of him he blandly sets himself up as the head animal ofthe lot: whereas by his own standards he is the bottomone.

I'm glad Glenn Beck turned people on to Hayek and all, but he's,um, let's say...an exemplar of the human race.

reply to this

(310) 367-6109

Editorial & Production Offices:

3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Suite 400 Los Angeles, CA 90034 (310) 391-2245

advertisements GA_googleFillSlot("left1"); GA_googleFillSlot("left2"); GA_googleFillSlot("left3"); GA_googleFillSlot("left4"); GA_googleFillSlot("left5"); Print|Email Reason.tv: What We Saw at the Glenn Beck Rally in DC

August 28, 2010

On August 28, 2010, Fox News host Glenn Beck held his "Restoring Honor" rally at thefoot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The aim of theevent, explained the lachrymose TV personality, was to "comecelebrate America by honoring our heroes, our heritage and ourfuture."

As the WashingtonPost reports,

"For too long, this country has wandered in darkness, and wehave wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning," Becksaid, at times pacing at the memorial. "We have had moments ofbrilliance and moments of darkness. But this country has spent fartoo long worried about scars and thinking about the scars andconcentrating on the scars.

"Today," he continued, "we are going to concentrate on the goodthings in America, the things that we have accomplished - and thethings that we can do tomorrow. The story of America is the storyof humankind."

Despite the presence of former Gov. Sarah Palin and many TeaParty trappings, the event was not political, or at least not inany conventional sense. Rather, the speakers called for bringingreligion into the public square and using it as the guiding forcein all aspects of American life.

Reason.tv was on hand to take in the day and talk with someof thethousands of people who showed up (crowd estimates wereunavailable at the time of this writing, though the crowd feltthinner than the one at lastyear's Tea Party rally). Most of the people we talked to wereopenly skeptical of politicians of both major parties and agreedstrongly with the religious bent of the rally, often arguing thatsome sort of religious orientation was necessary for what that sawas a return to national greatness.

"What We Saw at the Glenn Beck Rally in DC" was shot by JimEpstein with help from Josh Swain. Edited by Epstein and MeredithBragg. Hosted by Nick Gillespie.

Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable iPod, HD and audioversions of this and all our videos.

Help Reason celebrate its next 40 years. Donate Now!

StumbleUpon| Digg| Reddit| Twitter| Facebook

Try Reason's award-winning print edition today! Your first issue is FREE if you are not completely satisfied.

← OK, So Three Hours of Beck… | Main | That's Rich, Frank → See all 318 comments | Leave a comment Anonymous|8.28.10 @ 8:17PM|#

The video... it does nothing.

reply to this SIV|8.28.10 @ 8:26PM|#

Whaddya expect..it's the weekend. Only guy working is the onenot on salary with an underwater California mortgage.

reply to this hmm|8.28.10 @ 11:15PM|#

So everyone?

reply to this BeltwayLurker|8.28.10 @ 8:42PM|#

They made their Jew work on Saturday. What else would youexpect.

reply to this Bruce Majors|8.29.10 @ 10:32AM|#

I don't think Nick is Jewish.

reply to this MWG|8.29.10 @ 1:22PM|#

...let alone a FULL Jew.

reply to this //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == '|') document.write("&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"); else document.write(unescape(l[i]));} //]]> |8.28.10 @ 8:27PM|#

Sounds exactly as boring as going to church.

Still i do find it funny that Nick and film crew got trickedinto going to church on a Saturday.

reply to this Bruce Majors|8.29.10 @ 10:37AM|#

I went down the day before and heard the sound check which washeavy heavy R&B/gospel music. I thought, kewl, it's going to bea soul-a-palooza. I was disappointed, though I spent the time beingfollowed around by the Daily Beast(http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-28/bruce-majors-an-unlikely-tea-partier/)so I missed the contet of the speeches (yes, yes I know, shamelessnarcissism, but it really salves the wounds of having Rachel Madcowsmear you as a racist).

My vote is next year they up the music to speech ratio to 2 or 3to 1.

reply to this M.|8.28.10 @ 8:31PM|#

Beck's speech - and the tone of the entire event - was veryTocquevillean.

reply to this //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == '|') document.write("&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"); else document.write(unescape(l[i]));} //]]> |8.29.10 @ 10:50AM|#

Which is why I like it - you can't have a society of individualsdedicated to their own 'satisfaction' alone, or the necessarysecond premise of individual 'responsibility' will never fall intoplace. That's where you get modern liberalism - selfish libertinesin the social sphere, while insisting on society's enabling theireconomic whims (healthcare is a RIGHT, etc.). Your right andobligation to fulfil your moral responsibilities should take centrestage, if you want to enable self-direction in all directions.

reply to this Warty|8.28.10 @ 8:33PM|#Man is the onlyPatriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under hisown flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinousuniformed assassins on hand at heavy ex pense to grab slices ofother peoples countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his.And in the intervals between cam­paigns, he washes the blood offhis hands and works for the universal brotherhood of man, with hismouth.Man is the Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Ani mal. Heis the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. Heis the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts histhroat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard ofthe globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brothers path tohappiness and heaven. He was at it in the time of the Caesars, hewas at it in Mahomet's time, he was at it in the time of theInquisition, he was at it in France a couple of cen turies, he wasat it in England in Mary's day, he has been at it ever since hefirst saw the light, he is at it today in Crete (as per thetelegrams quoted above) he will be at it somewhere else tomor row.The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they aregoing to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seemsquestionable taste.Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is opento dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is theUnreasoning Animal. Note his history, as sketched above. It seemsplain to me that whatever he is he is not a reasoning animal. Hisrecord is the fantastic record of a maniac. I consider that thestrongest count against his intelligence is the fact that with thatrecord back of him he blandly sets himself up as the head animal ofthe lot: whereas by his own standards he is the bottomone.

I'm glad Glenn Beck turned people on to Hayek and all, but he's,um, let's say...an exemplar of the human race.

reply to this Sosnowski|8.28.10 @ 10:04PM|#

See to yourself, Man.

reply to this El Capitano|8.28.10 @ 8:33PM|#

Christian nationalism. Yay? Is this really who we want to throwour lot in with? This is pretty creepy.

reply to this Ron L|8.28.10 @ 9:44PM|#

It's worse than that.

reply to this //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == '|') document.write("&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"); else document.write(unescape(l[i]));} //]]> |8.28.10 @ 11:23PM|#

Really? One could argue that libertarianism grew out ofChristian nationalism. I think the two have more in common than youmight think.

reply to this Some Guy|8.29.10 @ 8:21AM|#

I actually can't think of anything they have in common.

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