I know you don't mean to imply that Glenn Beck is a paleocon.
That said, I see Beck as the one driving the wedge here. We've seen this song and dance before. He claimed he was becoming a "libertarian" then threw Debra Medina under the bus by tripping her up with a no-win question on 9/11 (denounce the truthers in your midst or face my wrath!). Then he went on to endorse Santorum and Bachmann of all people! (I don't think either of those are worthy of the paleocon label, especially Santorum.)
Hey, I'm a forgiving person. But Beck wants acceptance on his terms. When Saul became Paul he was humble about his past and he was understanding of those who couldn't just overlook that. He didn't just say "I accept Jesus now." but he admitted he was wrong for persecuting Christians. While I don't expect Beck to go that far, his lashing out at those who are still skeptical of him makes me the more skeptical of him. And what's with he and his cronies attacking Paul supporters who went out to OWS? Peter Schiff went out to OWS! Beck wants us to find points of agreement with him, but not find points of agreement with others? Beck, if you're really on our side this time welcome. But you can't dictate the terms of the relationship.
This.
I'll be damned if I stand idly by while Beck tries to define libertarianism, and in so doing tries to redefine me. And I'm surely not interested in him using the tired old divide and conquer strategy to seperate us from true, conscientious liberals who want a path to peace and who can see that the sort of socialism they crave is legal under the Constitution and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. I think their states will ultimately fail, and I'm not worried about my state going down that path, but I try not to say that too loud. Besides, I'm not omniscient, and I don't
know their states will fail. All I know is that federal level socialism is failing massively in no small part because it is essentially corporatism. Simply put, Washington goes to the highest bidder. That is why we must force them into inaction (once they've repealed the damage they've already caused).
For Beck to say we can't win and we must settle for the likes of Santorum or Romney is simply Beck carrying water for the establishment and trying to use the power of the numbers he can sway to create a self-fulfilling prophesy. If he cries when he does it, then he needs to put the Vick's away. If he sways some to lean toward Rand Paul, good. Let's hope we can be vigilant enough to convince them all that when (not if) Beck flips and says, hey, he can't win, he's dead wrong.
Rand Paul can win. He can't win without us. Maybe he can't win unless we focus on more important things, like eliminating Diebold from the process. But the man can win. And in the meantime, we can and should be working on making Congress all the more friendly to him.
Beck will drive wedges wherever he can, and he'll try to drive more wedges besides. He'll drive a wedge wherever he can think of to stick one. His true colors are evident enough. If we can all remember to say, well, on
that I agree with Beck but I don't trust him an inch, perhaps the people who listen to him will learn to have enough sense to take him with the all-important grain of salt.