Glenn Beck Is Thomas Paine, Except for Everything
Colonial Williamsburg has a village idiot. Here he is:
Yes, it's something new: Xenophobic dinner theater.
You don't have to watch the whole thing. If you're white, and have an older relative you wish was dead, you know where it's going. A bore's litany of harrumphing clichés. The greatest generation didn't defend the Alamo just so a lot of special interests could overcrowd the emergency rooms. He's going to say "We the people" a couple more times. If you're waiting for "mad as hell," it's at 1:34 and 6:04.
You should check out his other videos. You've got to admire a guy who can say "the time for talk is over," and then go on for six more minutes.
I wish I loved anything as much as this racist gasbag loves the sound of his own voice.
And now the scary part: This video has been viewed two-and-a-half million times on YouTube.
The clod in jodhpurs who says he's Thomas Paine is actually a motivational speaker named Bob Basso. He's the author of Don't Let the Gerosofers Bite!, Never Wanted to Set the World on Fire But Now that I'm 50 Maybe it's a Good Idea!, The Job Should be Fun!, Lighten Up Corporate America! and Spill Your Guts! Many of his book titles end in exclamation points! It's like he's overacting even when he's just writing!
And that's okay, too. (Although I didn't know the tea bag tax protests had so much to do with deporting all the illegal aliens.) Bob Basso has heard quite a few things on the radio, and here they are again. But why drag Thomas Paine into it? Is it just because you want to wear the hat? Why not say you're the Quaker Oats guy?
What did Thomas Paine ever do to you?
Besides, Bob Basso can't be Thomas Paine. Glenn Beck is Thomas Paine.
Beck says he's been "rewriting" Common Sense. He's also made Paine the theme of his upcoming stage show. The one he describes as:
Fun for the whole family and it's common sense. This time we may be joined on stage by a slightly crazy Founding Father... who's got a few things to say!
You cringe and you never stop cringing.
Now, none of this means anything. Glenn Beck is just an asshole, and next week he'll announce that he's Sponge Bob and he lives in a pineapple under the sea. But before another sputtering doofus claims to be the author of the Rights of Man, he might want to check if they share a single belief.
Do you like estate taxes? Paine was pitching them in 1791.
How about progressive taxation? Paine wasn't just for it, he made charts and graphs.
Welfare? Absolutely.
Government make-work programs? Yep. Pay for them with the estate tax.
Public education? Yes, please.
International organizations? Paine said we needed them. Thought they might be useful for preventing wars after we disarmed.
Feminism?
If a woman were to defend the cause of her sex, she might address him in the following manner ... If we have an equal right with you to virtue, why should we not have an equal right to praise? ... Our duties are different from yours, but they are not therefore less difficult to fulfill, or of less consequence to society ... You cannot be ignorant that we have need of courage not less than you ... Permit our names to be sometimes pronounced beyond the narrow circle in which we live. Permit friendship, or at least love, to inscribe its emblem on the tomb where our ashes repose; and deny us not that public esteem which, after the esteem of one's self, is the sweetest reward of well doing. -- T. Paine
Compare and contrast:
OK, so anyway, I was talking about ugly people. Ugly people, if you're a guy, you can get past it. I don't think you can as an ugly woman. I don't -- no, I don't. If you're an ugly woman, I apologize. Oh, you've got a double cross, because if you're an ugly woman, you're probably a progressive as well. --G. Beck
Animal Rights Nuts?
Everything of cruelty to animals is a violation of moral duty. -- T. Paine
Religion?
Religion is under attack! -- G. Beck
Priests and conjurors are of the same trade. -- T. Paine
Clammy Tub Toys who Think Putting on a Tricorn Makes Them Thomas Paine?
I'm Thomas Paine. -- G. Beck
The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. -- T. Paine
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political society government officials are not free to do anything they please in any manner they choose; they are bound to observe both the limitations on power and the procedures which are set out in the supreme, constitutional law of the community. It may therefore be said that the touchstone of constitutionalism is the concept of limited government under a higher law."WE THE PEOPLE ARE AMERICA
Do republicans really read anything??
So someone who disagrees with you must have no intellectual capacity?
Apparently, based on observation.
Either they read Thomas Paine and just did not understand what they read or they are making up a bunch of moose pucky. I think we all know the correct answer.
The article shows the way these Founding Fathers were three-dimensional people and intellectually complex and not the cartoon stereotypes promoted by ultra-conservatives.
Excellent article Chris Kelly.
High taxes and taxation without representation are unwarranted complaints because our tax rates are among the lowest in the last several decades. Teabaggers were disingenuous. They turned these parties into anti-government and anti-Obama protests.
No one is happy with the economic woes but where were these fist wielding pseudopatriots when GWB was spending trillions on wars, deregulation and bigger government? Were they so gullible that Bush's meager tax cut fooled them and shut their eyes while he was borrowing and wasting trillions of dollars? Where were they when the previous administration misled and lied to the media and public?
I favor term limits. They were proposed by Republicans in the early 90s and entered as one of the terms in the Contract With America. After the Republicans won so many seats in Congress, they back pedaled and declared term limits aren't necessary after all. Representative John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell are the result of Republicans abandoning term limits. Boehner introduced the GOP budget without numbers.
Here is another quirk in the video that's worth a notice. 4:18 into the video, this fake Thomas Payne ranted the abolition of the electoral college. Do the Republicans who support this realize that Al Gore won the 2000 popular vote and George Bush wouldn't have been the President? [Savoring that thought for more than a few moments]. Do they realize that Obama won the popular vote by the greatest margin for a non-incumbent?
After 8 years of being told that dissent is Patriotic, I finally believe you. Now you change your mind?
I am for dissent as long as the dissenters know what they are talking about. Most attendees at the tea parties were FoxNews sheeple chanting rhetorical slogans and ignorant of the relevant history, civics and economics. They also misrepresented themselves. Historically, tea parties were held to protest taxes. The recent parties were anti-government and anti-Obama protests.
Where were these "concerned" teabaggers during the Bush years when there were needed back then?
Great piece.
I will add another contrast: Thomas Paine was a thinker.
Awesome post, right here.
Glenn Beck is almost as good as Michael Steele and Rush Limbaugh in terms of making the Republicans look ridiculous.
Give him a chance already. He's got unplumbed depths. If he holds up long enough, he's going to be the stuff of legends.
How can he go wrong with idols such as the Alaskan governess and an unlicensed plumber who doesn't know what tax bracket he is in but claims to know what's good for the country?
Beck is commentator not a journalist. The ratings speak for themselves.
Very nice specially the compare and contrast... great!
They can't even spell the President's name!!!!
(on the address listing at the very end)
ROFL !!
That's because they are "morans."
If you can't spell it AtticusinPa, do you still mean it?
I'm sure it was an oversight.
Yeah, but they could figure out Turbo Tax (sorry Geithner).
very nice post, and the spongebob part made me chuckle.
Paine became hated by many for Age of Reason, in which he makes a strong case against Christianity. Amazing that Beck would align himself with someone who likened Christianity to atheism, defining God so narrowly, as opposed to his take on seeing God in all things.
WHERE HAVE THESE TEA BAGGING A-HOLES BEEN FOR THE PAST 8 YEARS?????
they were busy calling us anti-americans.
Laughing all the way to the bank?
After 8 years fo being told that dissent is Patriotic they finally believe it.
elr50,, after 8 years of being told that dissent is Patriotic, I think they finally believe it.
Nobody seemed to mind the Proposition 8 protests or the anti-war protests.
Republicans really and truly disgust me.
"buy a gun, you'll need it." One more instance of the call to violence that is more and more evident in the political language of the day. This started during the run up to the election and seems to be becoming nothing less than a public wish that someone do violence to the President. The speakers couch their language in generalities so they can claim they "never meant it", as Beck did when asked about the Pittsburgh shootings. Now we hear elected govenors talk about having their state suceed from the union. The last time that was talked about it caused the Civil War and produced the largest number of casualties in American history.
There is a term called "the maddness of crowds" that has been used to describe how things get out of control and cause entire populations to act against its own interests. This loose talk has not produced any consequences yet, but when it does and it is too late to do anything about it one might think back to this time and place and wonder why you were silent.
Let's not forget Hillary made comments about Obama's vulnerability and implied he risked violence by running.
"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule" -Nietzsche
BHO--top handgun salesman of the year.
Someone 'splain, please....I thought the original tea party was protesting taxation without representation. They didn't have a problem paying taxes, they just had a problem with paying them to the king and not having anyone in parliament representing them.
Yeah, that was a large part of it. We have representation now, we have lines of communication to contact them, and we vote on them. I guess they forgot about that.
Yeah--Here in Honolulu, when they interviewed 2 (Republican) teabag party goers, they both said they "were sick and tired of the government taking 'their' money and spending it without their having any say in it." Hmmmm . . . I thought our "say" in how our government operates is demonstrated by who we elect as our legislative representatives and executive branch leaders . . . i.e., we have a REPUBLICAN form of government--You know--the kind the GOP named their party after?. . . If you don't like how they're spending "your" money, you're perfectly free to vote for someone else, or even run against the incumbent. it's not that they don't have a "say"--It's just that the majority doesn't agree with their say. What crybaby losers.
You should see the Daily Show's John Oliver's skit on this. This was the very point he made...very funny stuff and showed the teabaggers as the carnival people they really are.
More commentary. Who's complaining? I never watch the daily show. Who cares if you do.
The original tea party was a protest against a tax on imported tea levied against the colonists but not the East India Tea Company leading to predictably lower prices for EITC tea. That's why the tea in the harbor, it belonged to the EITC.
they had lowered the taxes on East India Co. tea, thus making it cheaper than suggled tea. Dutch smugglers were partially behind the tea protest.
also, the part about dressing up like Native Americans somehow doesn't seem very courageous.
Maybe they are disappointed that there is not government transparency as promised. The stimulus bill was not posted on the internet as promised. Maybe upset nobody read the bill. Or they could want some say in where the money goes. It's hard to lose your job, then your home, then find out the government is paying to study pig odor and pay for overseas abortions.
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