Man...I love Glenn Beck

[boatdreams]

so, yesterday and today, we get to watch the republican party start to distance themselves from beck and rush and o'reilly et al.

yesterday lindsay graham made comments in a press conference saying that they really don't represent the republicans party, they represent nobody except a small group of listeners. today in the nytimes, david brooks (the voice of reason in the right) said the same thing in an interesting column pointing out that they may be a loud media presence, but they represent an extremely small demographic that can't do much of anything to swing elections (pointing out their bitter non-endorsement of mccain in the primaries, among other things). it's worth reading.

so, here comes the first few faltering steps of the republican party trying to re-emerge as a political force (farce?) in america. to do it they have to distance themselves from the extreme right, the only base they still have..

fun fun fun...

I think it's also worth pointing out that regardless of how small a demographic they actually represent, they seem to be part of a huge push to the right in American mainstream politics. As frivolous and petty as mainstream politics are, any deviation towards the "center" (whatever that meant in the first place) is now considered "left." Any genuine left-leaning ideology is now considered "socialism," with reckless disregard for the actual definition of the word.
Even as Obama took step after step towards the center during his candidacy, we were being warned about an impending Soviet style dictatorship, new terrorist attacks, etc. This bullies voters (the ones stupid enough to fall for that) into believing that the Republican Party is ONLY safe choice, while the Democrats are the enemy.
To me, the whole thing has been an exercise in creating a bunch of difference where there really isn't any; Democrats and Republicans, in my assessment, have been railroading us down the same set of tracks. We just occasionally get to switch to a different train car.

Just my opinion, though.

[9pod9]

I love it when Colbert is firing on all cylinders. That was brutal.

Colbert did a great job of nailing Glenn's foot to the deck last night.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-col...d-it-like-beck

(it may say "no longer available" but click play anyway. It's there.)

[Sash]

I think that conservatives and liberals in some ways are like different types of human... not all of them, but most of the time you can easily spot who's a con and who's a lib just by lookin at them.

[dennyschmickle]

dude WHAT?

[Hrabovsky]

[Sash]

Psychologically and culturally, they are quite different from one another.

[soupsandwich]

the easiest, fool proof way is to lift their shirt and check for a belly button

[ShhRecording]

Any genuine left-leaning ideology is now considered "socialism," with reckless disregard for the actual definition of the word.

Let's not forget the delightfully contradictory communist fascism that everyone's been talking about. Apparently Hitler was REALLY into universal health care and gov't bailouts.

[Sash]

Let's not forget the delightfully contradictory communist fascism that everyone's been talking about. Apparently Hitler was REALLY into universal health care and gov't bailouts.

Well, Germany had universal health care since the 1890's... established in the Second Reich, under Bismarck.

[the hipoisie]

Everyone knows the Plain-Belly Sneetches are Beach-hating Nazi Marxists.