LAST TIME, I POINTED OUT that Glenn Beck's new 9/12 Project reveals, behind a thin conservative veneer, a deeply liberal message.
After the nearly socialist mission statement we reviewed in the previous post, it's no surprise to find Beck's inner leftist shining through his "9 principles and 12 values".
Take, for example, principle 1:
America Is Good.
With the very first principle Beck breaks ranks with the naysayers—all those people who claim that this country has lost its way, or that we have become "godless and evil", or sunk deep in sin.
He separates himself from critics like those at the Values Voter Debate who sing songs like "Why should God bless America?"
Why should God bless America?
She denies that he exists,
And has turned her back on everything,
That made her what she is,
Why should God stand beside her...
Beck answers this America bashing, this apologetic stance toward our great nation, with a resounding "NO!".
"America is good."
He denounces those who question the basic principles of this country—like the separation of church and state, or the fundamental equality of all humans, or freedom of speech.
He sides with those who fully expect our great nation to be able to admit its mistakes, to reach a hand of friendship out to other nations, to behave as a truly good nation would in the world community.
He sees America as a moral influence, a nation that will not stoop to torture, or invade nations which have not attacked us first, or spy on our own citizens, or allow children to starve or go without medicine because they were unfortunate enough to be born poor.
And, of course, that means that those who would do those things—those who have done those things—and those who support them are not truly American.
I'm sure Beck doesn't mean that they should be deprived of their rights or citizenship: that would be a very un-liberal position.
But his stance does imply that those who do such things are unAmerican in the deepest sense—even antiAmerican.
They lack an understanding and appreciation of our nation's virtues and traditions. They would have us abandon those virtues and traditions: the very things that make this country what it is.
America, Beck tells us, with its many cultures, its many races, its many religions and even lack of religions, its teeming masses from all parts of the world, with its intentionally secular government which makes all this possible, is good.
Next time, Principle #2—I believe in God,
and He is the center of my life.
