Friday, September 25, 2009

The Truth Behind Glenn Beck

By Phil Fraietta
Fraietta@Fordham.edu

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck has recently taken a lot of heat regarding comments he made to Katie Couric in which he was heavily critical of failed Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain. Beck even went so far as to say he would’ve voted for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over McCain and that he believes President Barack Obama will be better for the country that McCain would have.

While I do not agree with Beck that McCain would have been a worse choice than Clinton or Obama, I was particularly fond of his explanation. Beck argued that McCain has a strange sense of progressivism in him. For instance, McCain supports Cap and Trade and was a pioneer for Campaign Finance Reform. But, perhaps what was most telling was Beck indicating that McCain’s personal political hero is President Theodore Roosevelt.

As President, Roosevelt authored some of the most progressive legislation this nation has ever seen, including strong environmentalist legislation, and often spoke of high taxation in order to improve income equality. Despite this progressivism, contemporary conservatives often times look to Theodore Roosevelt as a great President and a hero. Why? Because of Roosevelt’s military heroics.

This brings me to the real point of this post: it’s about time conservatives stop tolerating progressive policies in the name of military heroics. Over the past 100 years we have seen this happen with progressive Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and most recently with progressive Senator John McCain.

Now, it is certainly true that military heroics should be honored but they most certainly do not excuse progressive behavior while in office. In other words, respect these individuals for their military heroics, but criticize them for their politics.

Fellow conservatives should be praising Glenn Beck’s comments, not criticizing them. I believe it is time we, as conservatives, toughen up and refuse to tolerate progressivism, regardless of military credentials. Let’s put true conservatives into office, people who will keep government small, who will lower our taxes, and most importantly, who will preserve liberty. Not people whose only conservative appeal is past military heroics.

1 comment:

DSKohn said...

Good article. I think everyone knows McCain did not have the hearts and minds of many Conservatives behind him because he was a moderate. But I do not think Campaign Finance Reform falls under a 'progressive' policy, it is really an anti corruption policy.

Of more concern to me was the McCain Kennedy Bill which would have legalized illegal immigrants. The government likes to tell people there are 12 million of them but they don't include the fact that those people will be able to bring their families eventually. And it would have been nothing more than a strategy for the Democrats to swamp the country with people who will vote for them.