The dark soul of Glenn Beck

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Just consider what Beck said about Obama and Haiti:

I also believe this is dividing the nation…to where the nation sees him react so rapidly on Haiti and yet he couldn't react rapidly on Afghanistan. He couldn't react rapidly on Ft. Hood. He couldn't react rapidly on our own airplanes with an underwear bomber... it doesn't make sense... Three different events and Haiti is the only one. I think personally that it deepens he divide to see him react this rapidly to Haiti.

This is ridiculous, of course. What was Obama supposed to do about Ft. Hood? The killer was apprehended. What was he supposed to do about the underwear bomber? The would-be killer was apprehended. Sure, he could have acted more quickly on Afghanistan, calling for the Iraq-like surge sooner than he did, but divisions over the Afghan War have more to do with the policy than with the timing -- and mostly he has faced criticism from the left.

The quick response to the catastrophe in Haiti is hardly dividing the country. Rather, the country seems to be fully behind the president and the rest of the massive international effort to provide aid and relief to a country desperately in need.

Beck's comments are not as noxious as Rush Limbaugh's, but he nonetheless seems to be saying that Obama shouldn't have responded so quickly, that is, that America should have been slow to address the humanitarian crisis -- and presumably should have let more people suffer and die.

Some conservatives -- such as Joe Scarborough, Pat Buchanan, and Bill O'Reilly -- have generally avoided trying to capitalize on tragedy by attacking Obama and trying to score partisan political points over the Haiti earthquake. The notable exceptions thus far are Limbaugh, Beck, Pat Robertson, and Steve King, the last of whom suggested that undocumented Haitians in the U.S. be deported home.

As Steve Benen puts it, this is "a race to the bottom" -- though the right-wing reservoir of odiousness seems bottomless.

If anything, I'd say the situation in Haiti is dividing not the country but conservatives -- with some of the most prominent conservatives around actually arguing that the U.S. should give Haitians the middle finger. They've embarrassed themselves, and their movement, and their party, and everything they believe in, but, thankfully, they aren't in a position to dictate policy, or to stand in the way of Obama doing what's right and necessary.

The darkness of some people's souls, if they have souls at all, never fails to boggle the mind.