Glenn Beck is a nativist asshole

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Okay, I know what you're thinking: why the qualifier? Beck isn't just a nativist asshole, he's an asshole period. Which is to say, his assholery is essential to his being.

And, you know what? You're right. And I've previously said precisely that.

What I want to look at here, however, is the specifically nativist component of his assholery. For what a significant component it is.

Here's one of his latest public outbursts of nativism, courtesy of Think Progress:

Discussing [Wednesday] night's GOP debate on his radio show [yesterday], Glenn Beck and fill-in host Pat Gray mocked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by derisively calling him "Juan McCain." Beck, who considers McCain's sponsorship of a comprehensive immigration bill and the Mexican background of his national director of Hispanic outreach to be "an audacious slap in the face to the American people," proudly advertised the segment in his daily e-mail to listeners [yesterday].

And there's more. Read the full TP post.

As much as I dislike McCain, even if I have a bit of a soft spot for him, he doesn't deserve this sort of abuse. But of course he's viciously loathed by many on the right -- including Hugh Hewitt (who thinks he'd destroy "the Reagan Coalition," even though, in truth, he's stridently conservative) and Ann Coulter (who, believe it or not, has gone so far as to say she prefers Hillary over McCain, just like Michelle Malkin) -- and he's one of the few Republicans with (relatively) sensible views on illegal immigration.

In other words, with McCain now the frontrunner, and looking more and more like the GOP nominee-to-be, this is what we can expect not just from assholes like Beck but from the wide swath of purificationist ideologues on the right generally, those purge-leading neo-Stalinists of the conservative movement.

I would just remind you that Beck is on CNN, the network that gives Lou Dobbs an even more prominent platform from which to spew his nativist populism.

"The Most Trusted Name in News"? -- I think not.