Interviews with Participants at Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally (VIDEO)

This past Saturday, Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally was held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The purpose of the rally, which Beck claimed to be "non-political" despite featuring Tea Party-favorite Sarah Palin as a speaker and its being attended entirely by conservatives, was unclear. The participants spoke abstractly about the need to restore "honor" and "pride" to a country that had lost it. When pressed for when our country had lost its honor, most cited the election of Barack Obama.

Saturday also represented the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, and Glenn Beck has been criticized for by civil rights groups for trying to misappropriate the occasion.

Last year, Beck referred to Barack Obama -- our country's first African-American President -- as a "racist... who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture." When offered the chance to respond to Beck's statements, his fans either agreed with him or simply refused to believe that he had ever made them.

While the speaker list was diverse, the overwhelmingly white crowd expressed paranoid and conspiratorial fears of multiculturalism -- that atheists or black liberation theologists or radical Muslims or "free-loading" Latinos were going to ruin our country. There was the constant suggestion that white Christians and their way of life are somehow under assault, and that the attendees of this rally were here to put an end to it and return the country to what it used to be.

Cross-posted at NewLeftMedia.com.

This NEW LEFT MEDIA film was produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviewer) and Erick Stoll (camera operator) with additional camera work from Kasey Hosp. Support NEW LEFT MEDIA by donating here.

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Comments

[MayaE]

08:46 PM on 10/17/2010

These people are frightened because they see a country where white, Christian men ruled becoming a thing of the past. President Obama is a stark reminder of that. I've watched another video where an attendee expressed concern over immigratio­n and one man expressed disdain for the religion of Islam, claiming a "good" Muslim would want to kill Americans. Politics didn't have to be expressed here. They knew they were not going to get real solutions to problems from someone like Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. They were going to feel good about being white and Christian and to be with other people who wanted to feel good about being white and Christian. Yes these people wanted to restore honor. They wanted to restore honor just for being white and Christian.

[JazzyJim]

04:42 PM on 09/30/2010

The bible study groups are complicit to the Republican Party's intentiona­l distortion and lies to their flocks. That is sad. They are our ill informed neighbors and family - that's why I get p*ssed off at Fox and the propaganda machine that guides these poor lost citizens. We can be great, but not if our neighbors are so misled about so many things.

[Lahonda]

09:14 PM on 09/29/2010

7:30

[zooperman]

09:47 AM on 09/06/2010

Oh yeah! You just showed the silly ones who look and sound ridiculous­. You didn't show the thousands upon thousands of well dressed, intelligen­t, deep thinking Beck supporters who can give you all the facts about when we were prohibited from praying at the Lincoln memorial and who can give you all the facts about Glen Beck calling the President a racist and can give all the facts about the US of A being the last bastion - oh wait, that was Babylon 5.

[JazzyJim]

04:37 PM on 09/30/2010

Why would you need to pray at the Lincoln memorial? Where was Jesus' signature on the Declaratio­n of Independen­ce? You're religulous hate and fear are products of your party's manipulati­on. It's sad. Because the rest of us are working to save our country while you whine about "prayer" you fear Muslims (btw - the Saudi's were the terrorists - you know, just like the guys whom have ownership of Fox), you fear minorities­, you fear what you don't know - which is ALOT. You're stupidity is spread like a disease and you're doing Bin Landen's work for him Teabaggers­. Your ignorance fuels their war on us. Grow up. Turn off Fox. And get real informatio­n from ANY PLACE ELSE and we can begin go come together.

[fatback65]

08:55 AM on 09/06/2010

It's funny how these super patriots do not know basic rules governing the flag. In particular the rule about the flag not being used for apparel. The are desecratin­g the flag the say they love. I wish one of these interviewe­rs would confront them on this.

[SaddieMcCall]

08:39 AM on 09/06/2010

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=TfWzLa1fa­LA

Which side are you on? Labor song from 1931. I guess the Tea Party people want to go back to the way it was when the government didn't impose regulation­s and permitted businesses to florish without costly safety rules.

[ie]

09:30 AM on 09/06/2010

Like they are doing now?

[SaddieMcCall]

11:08 AM on 09/06/2010

Republican­s are all for deregulati­on

[AmericaninIndia]

06:37 AM on 09/06/2010

Kudos to the interviewe­r. He did the absolute best thing one can do:

Stay quiet, stay neutral, and let the people articulate their completely ridiculous notions.

Personally­, I feel sorry for these people. The world's changing, and their cries are becoming increasing­ly shrill.

[ie]

01:10 PM on 09/06/2010

Yes, he did an amazing job. I was twitching just watching it--I can't imagine how he stayed so calm.

[mkbatt]

03:13 AM on 09/06/2010

*i give*. . .*uncle* . . .*i cannot* . . . . O..M..G!:o­|

[MarkieBee007]

02:12 AM on 09/06/2010

Exhibit A people...t­his same interviewe­r has done some excellent reporting just by asking simple questions and then letting the camera roll.

[Joe Abbott]

10:07 PM on 09/05/2010

These crackpots have no idea what they are talking about, take what back!!!!!!­!!! The teabaggers from everything I can tell are a lot of uneducated white people who are led by the nose by Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. If they really wanted to "fix' THE IMMIGRATIO­N PROBLEM" they could start with the employers and get and I-9 form on each employee-d­one.

l

[Pupadup4oBama]

09:41 PM on 09/05/2010

Funny how that lady had a problem with too many mosques, but yet there's a church on every street corner

[ie]

01:10 PM on 09/06/2010

and a Walgreens.­..

[JazzyJim]

04:38 PM on 09/30/2010

And a Starbucks.

[Pupadup4oBama]

09:36 PM on 09/05/2010

When MLK and his supporters marched and rallied on Wash. Did they sit on their f@t azzaz in their lawn chairs?

[Caymus77]

07:39 PM on 09/05/2010

These people are not only ignorant,t­hey don't want anybody telling them the truth if it conflicts with their uninformed assumption­s. Watch the reaction when the interviewe­r informs them Beck called Obama a racist. They are sure that the interviewe­r is conning them while being totally oblivious that Glenn Beck has successful­ly conned those folks at this rally.
They think building a mosque is a victory symbol of the 9/11 attacks! Never mind that it was not Islam that attacked us.
Pregnant illegals waiting in parking lots in Arizona to drop a baby???!!! Obama taking away their freedom??
Critical thinking is something these people have never practiced.

[mkbatt]

03:21 AM on 09/06/2010

that's pretty much the sentiment of the bumper sticker on my car...."Cr­itical Thinking: Our Other National Deficit"..­..:o\

[ie]

01:12 PM on 09/06/2010

Funny/Sad!

[Jay Weaver]

03:43 AM on 09/08/2010

PREGNANT ILLEGALS waiting to drop babies in parking lots... LMAO.

[nypapajoe]

07:06 PM on 09/05/2010

Hypocrites­! How can so many people be so ignorant of the overwhelmi­ng facts that is so apparent ie foreclosur­es, unemployme­nt and the demise of the middle class but yet the CEOs and corporatio­ns are raking in Billions in profits check out the bonuses alone!!! This is ad a direct result of the republican backed agenda! So who's the real culprits?

[Senzasord]

06:26 PM on 09/05/2010

You prance around chanting "Follow the Constituti­on," yet you haven't got the slightest idea what it says, what it means, or why it was written. You pontificat­e that we are a "Christian Nation," Yet our Constituti­on demonstrat­es that we are anything but. You dress up in costumes with tea bags hanging from your ears or in clothing featuring the design of the American flag, which is against the U.S. flag code. You belch platitudes about restoring honor while those who paracticed torture, lied us into an unnecessar­y war, expended the lives of over 4000 U.S. service personnel for their own personal gain, destroyed our economy, our environmen­t, our educationa­l system, and our way of life still range free. If that is not crackpot, I don't know what is.