Dana Milbank - Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America

ALSO BY DANA MILBANK

Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes
That Run Our Government

Smashmouth: Two Years in the Gutter with
Al Gore and George W. Bush

Copyright 2010 by Dana Milbank

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.doubleday.com

DOUBLEDAY and the DD colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the Library of Congress

eISBN: 978-0-385-53389-8

First Edition

v3.1_r1

In memory of Woodrow Wilson:
fascist, communist, president

CONTENTS

Well, hello America!

That greeting, at the start of most every Glenn Beck television broadcast, precedes the Fox News hosts reading of the news of the day. To Beck, this news generally takes the form of a warning, such as this one broadcast during the health-care debate: America is burning down to the ground, and if somebody doesnt ask these questions, well, were all just going to watch it burn down together.

Having imparted this information to his viewers, Beck transitions to movement leader, proposing a way to help his viewers avoid the doomsday scenario he has just outlined. Come on, Americalets go! he says, waving the viewers, Fred Rogersstyle, over to his set. Follow me.

Those who have heeded the follow me cry have been taken by Beck to some unusual places: Theyve heard him talk about Barack Obamas deep-seated hatred for white people, about the fact that he cant debunk the allegation that the U.S. government has set up concentration camps in Wyoming, about his wish to kill Michael Moore, and about his fantasy of poisoning Nancy Pelosi. Theyve followed along as hes described his mortal enemies, progressives, as both communists and Nazis bent on one world governmentplanning a Reichstag moment for the United States and using the same tactic Hitler did in rounding up Jews and exterminating them.

But tonight America, or some portion of it, has followed Beck to Norfolk, Virginia, where hes putting on a live performance in front of eight thousand paying customers along with fellow Fox News host Bill OReilly, who is a flamethrower in his own right but who next to Beck seems as mild as Jim Lehrer.

The SUVs parked in the garage next to the arena are plastered with magnetic yellow ribbons for the troops and decals of Christian fish symbols. They have bumper stickers promoting Sarah Palin and messages such as Except for ending slavery, fascism, Nazism, and communism, war has never solved anything.

The audience members, some in camo, some with Fight Socialism T-shirts, and a few in the tricorn hats of the Tea Party, line up outside the arena, where local Tea Party activists pass out leaflets announcing future events. Make your voice heard today before we lose our freedom to speak out, the Tea Party notice pleads. Tea Party candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the local congressional seat work the crowd.

Inside the arena, an exhaustive search of the thousands in the crowd finds three black people, other than those working the concession stands. The white faces mostly have gray hair, or none at all; the age of the audience is reflected in the kiosk inside the entrance promoting an assisted living facility and one of the sponsors of the event, a home health-care and hospice service. Surrounding the stage are some of the bodyguards in dark suits who follow Beck wherever he goes.

Beck begins his performance. In the second minute, he makes a mocking Hispanic accent while he talks about immigration. In the third minute, he advises the visiting Mexican president to get your ass on your plane and go home.

Just nine minutes after he has taken the stage, Beck is calling Obama the Antichrist, using a deep, demonic voice to represent the president. Theyre getting so tired of me saying theres a Marxist in the White House, I gotta take it up a notch, he explains.

Taking it up a notch seems always to be Becks goal, and his recipe for success. Problem is, there arent many notches left for him. After entertaining the crowd with a couple of penis jokes (about the name of Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner), he warns of an imminent takeover of the country by a global government: Maybe its better, then, that we just dont make it as a civilization, because they are building a global cage. Theyre building a machine to redistribute the wealth all over the globe.

OReilly joins Beck on the stage and teases his colleague about his apocalyptic forecasts. I think we are so close to a perfect storm collapse, that if everything doesnt play out exactly right, you aint going to make it, Beck informs OReilly. He agrees to a wager with OReilly, betting that within ten years, the globe collapses.

The end is near! Becks End Times predictiongrounded in a controversial prophecy of the Mormon faith he adopted a decade agois the sort of thing that has led Beck to replace OReilly as the most outrageous personality at Fox News. Hes worse than me! OReilly tells the crowd, which applauds. When Beck arrived at Fox in 2009, All of the heat went right over to you, he says to Beck. Its great.

Great for OReilly, maybebut what about the rest of us?

Beck declined to be interviewed for this book. He said on air before a single word had been written that it was a smear. But as Beck himself said of Van Jones, one of the Obama administration officials he forced from office: How is it that a smear campaign is conducted when youre only using the persons words? Am I smearing him by using his own words?

This book uses what Beck says is his own technique: quoting him in his own words. In Becks case, these are some very special words.

At this writing, in the early summer of 2010, Beck has in the last few weeks: mocked the presidents eleven-year-old daughter; praised Joseph McCarthy; recommended the work of an anti-Semitic author; released a rooted in fact thriller about the United States succumbing to a world government; marveled that a Sarah Palin biographer has not been punched in the face; and given his considered opinion that the private sector could probably take care of things in Afghanistan better than U.S. troops. Beck has been in what might be called an Ann Coulter spiral: Each outrage must pack more shock value than the previous. The difference is that Beck, unlike Coulter, has millions of passionate followers.

Around Memorial Day, Beck questioned the intelligence of Malia Obama, the presidents eleven-year-old, after her father said at a press conference that she asked if he had yet been able to plug the hole leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Thats the level of their education, that theyre coming to Daddy and saying, Daddy, did you plug the hole yet? Beck said in his radio show. With his sidekick imitating the president, Beck played young Malia in a radio skit and asked: Why do you hate black people so much?