Glenn Beck, "The Plan," and 100 years of anger, paranoia, and extremism

By Michael J.W. Stickings

So what was Glenn Beck's big, massive, history-altering announcement? Is he running for office? Founding a PAC? Setting up a third party?

No, no, and no, but he is developing... (drum roll, please)... "The Plan" -- "a book that will provide specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps that each of us can take to play a role in this Refounding."

See, he wants America to be born again:

I have begun meeting with some of the best minds in the country that believe in limited government, maximum freedom and the values of our Founders. I am developing a 100 year plan. I know that the bipartisan corruption in Washington that has brought us to this brink and it will not be defeated easily. It will require unconventional thinking and a radical plan to restore our nation to the maximum freedoms we were supposed to have been protecting, using only the battlefield of ideas.

Well, at least it's not the battlefield of arms, as some on the militant right prefer.

On August 28, 2010, I ask you, your family and neighbors to join me at the feet of Abraham Lincoln on the National Mall for the unveiling of The Plan and the birthday of a new national movement to restore our great country.

As the Times puts it, Beck is now styling himself a "political organizer." And, to be fair, he does have quite a few followers.

But let me repeat what I wrote yesterday: "Glenn Beck is dangerous. What he represents, what he leads, is a movement of darkness, of hatred and paranoia, of fear and resentment and bitterness." In a way, he's a great face for right-wing politics -- great for those of us who oppose the right, given the massive extent to which he single-handedly discredits conservatism, more so than Limbaugh and Hannity, O'Reilly and Coulter, Palin and Malkin, and all the rest. And his movement will surely hurt the Republicans far more than the Democrats, who could benefit from a divided right.

And it's hard to believe that he will ever be able to attract more than the disgruntled, alienated fringe, even at a time of economic uncertainty and widespread fear.

At No More Mister Nice Blog, Steve M. puts it well:

So now we see what Glenn Beck really is: He's basically a televangelist. A huckster. A late-night pitchman selling seminars and book/DVD/audio combo packages that will allegedly help you get rich through flipping real estate. A human-potential-movement cult leader who promises life breakthroughs in exchange for participation in costly "religious" or "therapy" programs.

He wants you to attend one (or, surely, many) of his "conventions." Will they be free? I strongly doubt it -- oh, maybe the first taste will be free, but after that, I'd guess no. And he wants you to buy the next book (and, surely several after that). And there's a "100 year plan" in the works -- you can't ever get off the mailing list because the good work he's involving you in is never done!

Still, I suppose we ought to take this seriously -- or at least take a cautious approach to it, not just laugh it off entirely. There's a great deal of darkness, hatred and paranoia, fear and resentment and bitterness out there -- and Beck will continue to tap into it not just to profit off it but to mobilize it, to give it all a political voice and a leader in Beck himself. And as much as he may want to wage his war on "the battlefield of ideas," he may not be able to contain what he proposes to unleash. He's the populist demagogue setting out to guide a movement and foment revolution, but history is littered with such leaders who lose control, and whose movements move off on their own.

Essentially, Glenn Beck is hoping to turn himself into even more of a cult of personality than he is now. He is still a joke, and a sham, but there are real dangers lurking in "The Plan," however silly it may appear to be. It would be unwise of us to ignore it, even as we hope for deep divisions on the right, even as we note the clear insanity that launches Beck into the stratosphere of delusion.