Glenn Beck - Addicted to Outrage

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ALSO BY GLENN BECK

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It IS About Islam

Agenda 21: Into the Shadows

Dreamers and Deceivers

Conform: Exposing the Truth About Common Core and Public Education

Miracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America

The Eye of Moloch

Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns

Agenda 21

Cowards: What Politicians, Radicals, and the Media Refuse to Say

Being George Washington: The Indispensable Man, as Youve Never Seen Him

Snow Angel

The Original Argument: The Federalists Case for the Constitution, Adapted for the 21st Century

The 7: Seven Wonders that Will Change Your Life

Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure

The Overton Window

Idiots Unplugged: Truth for Those Who Care to Listen (audiobook)

The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book

Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government

Glenn Becks Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine

Americas March to Socialism: Why Were One Step Closer to Giant Missile Parades (audiobook)

The Christmas Sweater

An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the Worlds Biggest Problems

The Real America: Early Writings from the Heart and Heartland

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-4767-9886-8

ISBN: 978-1-4767-9892-9 (ebook)

To those who are willing to step out in front of the crowd, to question, reason, and have the dangerous conversations. Men with whom I may strongly disagree at times, but will always consider Refounders of Reason and contemporary heroes: Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson, Bret Weinstein, Sam Harris, Jonathan Sacks, Penn Jillette, and Joe Rogan.

There are things that I believe that I shall never say, but I shall never say those things I do not believe.

I. Kant

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil... Not to speak is to speak.

D. Bonhoeffer

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.

T. Jefferson

The floor of the United States Senate was mostly deserted on the afternoon of May 22, 1856. Republican senator Charles Sumner was sitting at his desk, dutifully scribbling some notes. In an angry speech a few days earlier he had attacked South Carolina senator Andrew Butler, claiming, The senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sightI mean the harlot, slavery.

Then he had added derisively, [He] touches nothing which he does not disfigure with error, sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. He cannot open his mouth, but out there flies a blunder.

It was a satisfying and, Sumner believed, absolutely necessary response to Butlers own recent attempt to race-bait him by making sexual innuendos concerning female slaves.

As the gallery finally emptied, Butlers cousin, South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks, hobbled onto the Senate floor. His wounds from a duel earlier in life forced him to rely on a heavy cane with a gold head. Like so many Americans divided by the issue of slavery, Brookss hatred for the opposing side had reached the boiling point. Sumners speech, he decided, was a scurrilous slander on both his cousin and the state of South Carolina. It had to be answered. He had considered challenging Sumner to a duel, but rejected that because the senator was not a gentleman. Instead he intended to humiliate him by beating him in public.

Brooks calmly accused Sumner of a public slander, and then began beating him savagely with his cane. He smashed him over and over, across his face, back, and shoulders. Sumner was beaten onto the floor, pinned under his desk, which was bolted to the floor, but still Brooks kept striking him. Sumner managed to rip the desk free and tried desperately to escape. Blood was pouring from his wounds. Several other senators tried to stop the attack but were held away by two other members of Congress wielding a cane and a gun. Brookss cane snapped into pieces, but even that didnt stop him. He continued hitting Sumner with its remnants until the senator lay unconscious in a bloody heap on the floor.

While Sumner was rushed into the cloakroom for medical aid, Brooks walked out of the building and the pieces of the broken cane were collected. No charges were ever brought against the Democratic congressman, and Sumner eventually recovered. The attack made both men heroes to their supporters. Remnants of the cane were shaped into rings, which southern lawmakers wore proudly around their necks. Brooks received hundreds of replacement canes. In northern cities thousands of people attended rallies, helping to transform the new Republican Party into a political force, and more than a million copies of Sumners speech were distributed and prized as souvenirs.

Five years later the hatred between the North and South erupted into a civil war that was as close as this country has ever been to being ripped apart. An estimated eight hundred thousand Americans died during that war, 2 percent of the nations entire population. The end of the fighting in 1865 did almost nothing to stop the hatred, which continued to be felt throughout the country for decades. It seemed impossible that the situation would ever again reach that point, that hatred between Americans who share the same basic constitutional rights would threaten to destroy this country.