Beck Capture
Dave Weigel had an interesting post this morning about the problems a political movement runs into when it lets itself be led by charlatan media personalities:
The Democrats are in worse political shape than they were a year ago because unemployment is at 9.8 percent, the war in Afghanistan has grown less popular, and the bailouts of struggling banks are seen as wastes of money that haven’t worked. Republicans benefit when they talk about this stuff. But Beck and the others don’t let them talk about this stuff. For the past few months, they have moved the discussion onto fantasy terrain, accusing the president of reaching for dictatorial powers and surrounding himself with “radicals” who want to destroy capitalism. [...]
And remember, one of the huge political mistakes of 2005 was the Republican decision to do a full-court press on an issue that had come from conservative activists and pundits: the fate of Terri Schiavo.
You can see some of this at work in the very interesting GQR report on “The Very Separate World of Conservative Republicans”. Basically they contrast the worldview of self-identified conservative Republicans with that of Obama-skeptical people who don’t self-identify in this way. To cast the distinction in broad terms, the Obama-skeptics worry that Obama is failing—that his efforts to create jobs aren’t working, that his reforms of the health care system won’t improve access to quality care, etc.—whereas the conservative Republicans worry that he’ll succeed. They believe, à la Beck, that the Obama administration is pursuing a secret agenda aimed at the deliberate destruction of the United States. Focusing on this rather outlandish claim makes it difficult to get in touch with the more banal worries of the marginal voter.
The overarching problem, I think, is that while it may be tactically helpful to have allies in the media who’ll lie about your enemies, it’s a big problem when you start believing too many of the lies. Beck and others on the right have, for example, convinced a lot of people that Cass Sunstein is a dangerous wild-eyed in a way that will make it difficult for the Obama administration to elevate him to any higher positions. Given that Sunstein is, in fact, actually pretty conservative for a Democrat and also a plausible Supreme Court justice this campaign has been, objectively speaking, a victory for the left.
33 Responses to “Beck Capture”
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October 22nd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Uh, do you mean “a victory for the right” in your last sentence? I’m confused.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I think that Beck and his like follow the PT Barnum school of journalism. Say whatever gets ratings. Ironically, the better Obama does, the more outrageous Beck and Rush have to get to incite their minions into a froth. I really don’t think he cares what he says as long a the fringe will tune in.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:39 pm
NO it is a victory for the left because sustein is really quite conservative for a democrat. The left (that would be me) would like to see a real progressive on the court. Some one as progressive and forward looking as Scalia, Roberts, Alito, and Thomas regressive, backward looking, and corporatist.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:39 pm
The overarching problem, I think, is that while it may be tactically helpful to have allies in the media who’ll lie about your enemies, it’s a big problem when you start believing too many of the lies.
In my opinion, the overarching problem is that an increasing number of Americans have bigger things to worry about than Cass Sunstein being a crypto-Commie. And if the Democrats are only paying lip service to the real problems, the Republicans aren’t addressing the real problems at all–they don’t “benefit when they talk about this stuff,” because they don’t talk about it in any kind of coherent or intelligent fashion.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
A media personality who is beloved by 20% of the public and loathed by three or four times that number is in a position to be the richest, most popular talk show host in American history.
A political party that is beloved by 20% of the public and loathed by three or four times that number, on the other hand, is in a position to start asking the LaRouchites for some pointers on winning elections.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Say what you want about Terri Schiavo, she accomplished what hurricanes and terrorist threats could never do: because of her, President George W. Bush interrupted his vacation!
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
@3: It’s only a victory for the left if Sunstein’s replacement is more progressive. There’s a good possibility that Obama will trot out someone even more conservative in yet another attempt at fetish bipartisanship.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Richard Wang: If lots of average Joes think that Sunstein, who is in reality conservative for a Democrat, is a raging pinko commie, isn’t that bad for the left?
It means that anyone to the left of Sunstein is now not acceptable in the public arena, right?
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:12 pm
That’s what I’ve been on about (elsewhere). Beckism, birtherism, tentherism (which, lamentably, has had less traction), the whole lot of them, are the best thing that every happened to the popularity of Democrats in general and Obama in particular. There is, I imagine, a reputable conservative retort to everything Obama has proposed…but no Republican in a position of importance can make that retort because s/he is challenged by the lunatics.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I wonder if the recent lashing out at Fox News by Obama’s people is calculated to heighten the contradictions by driving the GOP even more closely into alignment with Fox. A Beck-lead GOP would be a godsend for the Democrats in the elections.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I want Obama to fail, and I’m not a conspiracy theorist, because I believe that his efforts have no chance of doing what he wants them to do. It’s not that he’s a bad guy, it’s that he took a job that he’s not smart enough, that no one can be smart enough to fill.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
@8 The idea here is that an alternative to Cass Sunstein will be to the right of where Beck claims that Cass is while in reality being to the left of where Cass actually is.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
togolosh,
I don’t wonder, not even the slightest bit. Of course it is.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
energizing the base works just fine: the RNC outraised the DNC in August and September.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Briber #12: But what’s to stop Beck and his ilk from demonizing the hypothetical “alternative to Sunstein” as even more extremely left than the false-image-of-Sunstein?
In short, Dems should push back against efforts to falsely portray their views.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
You’re assuming that labels such as left or right will be based on reality. Obama could nominate someone to the left of Sunstein, but if there were nothing to make a good narrative, the righties wouldn’t be able to make the case that he was to the left of him. Obama could even paint it as a compromise to nominate someone to the left of Sunstein instead of nominating Sunstein.
Because the Republicans decided to label everyone to the left of Alito a communist, the ability to get someone confirmed is now based on anecdotes rather than ideology.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Cleek, isn’t that normal? I thought the RNC was usually stronger than the DNC, in several senses and including money. But other funds (DCCC, DSCC) are doing better than their Republican equivalents.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Richard Wang: If lots of average Joes think that Sunstein, who is in reality conservative for a Democrat, is a raging pinko commie, isn’t that bad for the left?
It means that anyone to the left of Sunstein is now not acceptable in the public arena, right?
“Lots of average Joes” think that only in the sense that even a minuscule percentage of 300 million people is a lot. I would be surprised if a politically significant percentage of people other than those who would oppose anything Obama did no matter what think anything about Sunstein.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
i don’t think so.
according to MSNBC, despite two good months for the RNC, the DNC outraised the RNC in the third quarter. so, the DNC must’ve had a really good July. but that’s the first 1/4 that they’ve outraised the RNC, since 2004.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
You can’t do it directly. Nobody ever came off good making a reasoned argument explaining how they are not, in fact, a communist.
Ridicule works better. Point out that, evidently, about 3/4 of the American people seem to be communists nowadays. Start labelling animals and even inanimate objects as communists. did you ever notice that the cement squares that make up the sidewalk are uniform. There is no individuality. No square is allowed to raise itself up above the others. When one does, by having the good sense to place itself over a growing tree root, some liberal government apparatchik smashes it up and replaces it.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I’m not crazy about all of Sunstein’s academic work but he’s smarter than Sotomayor and smarter than John Roberts, and his elevation to the court would be good for the left because he’d do a good job. When thinking in these strategic terms MY can very abstractly assume that nominees and elected officials should be maximally left-wing, but it’s in contradiction with his actual politics.
The only consolation I have from Beck’s frothing at the mouth is that most of his wins aren’t really that damaging. Attacking czars before they’ve even been confirmed (and attacking the school speech, getting mad about volunteerism efforts, etc.) doesn’t hurt Obama that much. The Daschle/Geithner debacles, which were much more damaging, weren’t Beck’s doing.
On the other hand, with the Tea Parties Beck has accomplished a lot more in actual politics than Limbaugh ever has. And it’s just wishful thinking to believe that the Tea Party people are not doing a net harm to Obama.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I’m not crazy about all of Sunstein’s academic work but he’s smarter than Sotomayor and smarter than John Roberts, and his elevation to the court would be good for the left because he’d do a good job.
Absolutely! There’s no such thing as ideology when it comes to good governance! Let’s just pick The Best And The Brightest and everything will come up roses!
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Being smart isn’t enough. I’m sorry, but Cass Sustein would rule against working americans, side with employers against employees, and personally believes that corporations are equal to human beings.
He should be opposed by anyone who actually cares about this country. We aren’t going to have any kind of economic recovery until workers have more power. People like Cass Sustein are the enemies of this country to a far greater degree than Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh could ever dream of being. Evil and smart isn’t the kind of combination I want in a supreme court justice. Insane and smart (Scalia) has been bad enough.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Its not about a proper debate.
Its about making sure that 20 million semi-literate angry fools keep watching not only beckfools but commercials too.
Just deliver the numbers, baby.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:08 pm
But who captured Beck? Granted, he does make his own creative contribution to political discourse, but it’s not as if what comes out of is mouth springs ex nihilo from his brain. He mostly distills his frenzy from some K Street scribblers a few years back. It has to be that way because the binding constraint for him is content: he’s got more time to fill than he has things to say. So he turns to “experts” he trusts, & they turn out to be the same old movement conservative hacks who’ve been spinning out movement ideology for years. Phil Kerpen, for example. So if the Republican Party is languishing in somesort of Beckian captivity, it’s just a funhouse mirror reflection of the worldview its own movement operatives have fed to him.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:54 pm
For the past few months, they have moved the discussion onto fantasy terrain, accusing the president of reaching for dictatorial powers
So, accusing the President of reaching for dictatorial powers is “fantasy terrain”?
Really???
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Cleek, isn’t that basically what I said – that the RNC almost always (all but one quarter since 2004 in your comment) outraises the DNC?
There’re differences in how the parties raise and spend money.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Wrong President, A(ssho)l(e). That’s your boy who decided to flout the Geneva Conventions, the Fourth Amendment, and any sort of actual Congressional approval to wage war.
Eff off.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:56 pm
K: Maybe movement conservatism is even worse than I’m already aware of, but a lot of Glenn Beck rants about isn’t so much K Street as much as it is Infowars.com. And that sort of thing isn’t really especially corporate friendly, since they tend to argue that corporations are pushing a communist agenda or something incoherent like that.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Agree with soullite, I find corporatist Democrats like Sunstein almost as repulsive and dangerous as the lunatic Beckites, in a way more so, since they often seem to effectively—as regards the public—cloak their essential undemocratic reactionary-(ness) under a welter of pseudo-Enlightenment ‘liberal’ rhetoric.
We could use a few authentic FDR liberals ’round these parts.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:04 am
UserGoogol, my impression – I could be wrong – is that Beck gathers ideas from disparate sources w/in the wider right. Some are very crazy, like Alex Jones, & some are more crazy-traditional, like Cleon Skousen. His febrile manner lends the sense that these cranks are his only true influences, but he’s also influenced by more mainstream conservative sources. I mentioned Phil Kerpen, but he also channels – God stop this joke – Jonah Goldberg. There are others.
Whenever a rough, unlettered political talent rises, there’s always a struggle over access to his brain. (Cf. Sarah Palin.) This is going on w/ Beck now, notwithstanding his obvious shortcomings. Do not imagine that none of the ostensible grown-ups of rightwing ideological formation have a hand in this pie. Some do.
It’s true, some of Beck’s themes aren’t esp. corporate-friendly, & maybe I shouldn’t use the term “K Street.” (I think Americans for Prosperity is on Wilson Blvd in Arlington, but it’s not much of a stretch to call it a K St operation.) But he plainly is friendly to some conservative interests, & in any case, elements of the K Street right have good reasons to try to co-opt him. This is the nature of politics, nothing new here.
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:45 am
Njorl @20
Brilliant
Take a bow
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
strong>I just saw Whatever works (Woody Allen).
A very depleasant and never funny movie (quite strange, but Larry David is funnier in his sitcoms) in which we see a couple of Southerners litteraly becomes gay, polygamist and pornographic artist as soon as they put their feet in New York. They were frustrated, they are now very happy. Please…
I guess that there are other people who live in their own reality.
But what’s your ultimate purpose, Yglesias and James Carville ? Are you proclaming victory in the so-called war of cultures ?
Put those Woody Allen guys in a room with Michael Moore, Chomsky and a couple of “truthers” and we could jump to exactly the same conclusions.
You put a lot of efforts to mock a base who cheers Palin or Glenn Beck, or to imply that Teri Schiavo put the GOP in the opposition, but it still does not define what is “mainstream” on a lot of issues : socialism, capitalism, secularism, faith, family, life, country, soveignty, defense, foreign aid, judges, taxes, spendings, criminality and punishments, immigration, gay marriage, ecology, drugs… Actually, the same polls which showed very little self-identification as “republican” also say that a lot more people consider themselves as conservative than liberal. At the end of the day, for instance, I wonder why the centrist “who thinks that the government spends too much” but “who also find Glenn Beck’s exagerations stupid” would vote for the incumbent responsible for this huge deficit.
One more quick point. In 1964 a certain Barry Goldwater lost the presidential election in a landslide. Was it the dead of his ideas ? Or the dawn ?