Deconstructing Glenn Beck

“Do you think John Lennon would have liked Glenn Beck?”

My mom, who’s been a Beatles fan ever since she heard them live as a teenager, thought about this for a moment.

“I don’t know.”

We were walking towards Safeco field. It was Saturday, September 26, 2009 and Glenn Beck was speaking at 3pm, right before he headed up to Mount Vernon to accept the key to the city. The event was titled “Take the Field with Glenn Beck” and was produced by an Olympia-based organization called “The Evergreen Freedom Foundation”.

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has a hard time deciding on a slogan. Branding of the event read “Evergreen Freedom Foundation: Because People Want to Be Free”. On the EFF’s website, their slogan is “Because Freedom Matters!” The free tote bag I received simply said “An Experience Freedom Project, Presented by Freedom Foundation” And I thought we threw the word “community” around too much.

Twenty to thirty counter-protesters had gathered across the street from Safeco field. I was disappointed they were so far away, since I was hoping for face-to-face confrontation and yelling matches like the ones at town hall meetings I had seen on TV and YouTube.

My thirst for chaos unquenched, we gave our tickets to Safeco staff (who were getting overtime since it was a Saturday). My mom and I took our seats. We had a great view of the main event area. The field had round dining tables set up in front of a small stage. The stage had a vinyl printed photo poster background, probably twenty feet long, with the slogan “Because People Want to Be Free” emblazoned on the top. In the photo, the sun was just peaking through the clouds. From our seats, the clouds in the background seemed to move when the wind shook the vinyl. It was psychedelic.

With the sun pushing the shade to the row of seats behind us, the founder of the EFF came out and a video played on Safeco’s Jumbo-Tron. Clearly no one had done a technical rehearsal in advance. The bass was turned up too loud and it was impossible to make out what the speakers in the video were saying, (except for the phrase “Chinese kid”, which was really weird). Then an image of Christine Gregoire came on and everyone booed. Her image was repeated over and over, tiled in black and white, until the video cut to an image of Ronald Regan, and everyone cheered. I don’t think anyone had any idea what was going on in the video, we were all just responding to the images.

The EFF founder then took the stage and gave a romantic speech about America. Romanticizing America means recasting America into entity that is country, an idea, and a social system all at the same time. In romantic America we help out our fellow citizen in a time of need (and thereby strengthen humanity). When Americans come together to fight a war, or to build some great technological progress, we move not only our country, but also “the whole of humanity”, forward. By this definition of America, it’s clear that we are the greatest nation in the world.

And now, that America is under threat. Threat of expanded government powers, through regulation and bailouts. Threat of bureaucracy creeping into our homes and neighborhoods, and the government taking away our right (Our Right!) to help out our fellow citizen. Threat of exhausting the money supply by massive government deficits to pay for a growing federal government, deficits that will be passed down to the next generation. “We must”, said the EFF leader, “stop stealing from our children”.

The crowd applauded and stood up. It was hot that day. I took a sip from the free bottle of water I received when I came in.

The founder of EFF left the stage. We heard a voice. The Jumbo-Tron was blank, but the voice crackled with the wisdom that comes with old age and a hard life.

We looked down towards the stage. An old black soldier, dressed in full Korean-war uniform, holding a cane and wearing an earpiece mike, was hobbling up to the stage. That’s where the voice was coming from. And that voice, that narration, was about the greatest gift of all—The American Solider.

Halfway to the stage he stopped. He touched a lady on the shoulder.

“Do you know what freedom is? Can you say it?”

The lady opened her mouth to take a breath and shout “Freedom!” The soldier stopped her.

“No, don’t shout it. Say it. Say it from your soul. Feel it from your belly.” He looked at the crowd, “Everyone now”

The crowd whispered “Freedom”.

“Again” said the soldier.

The crowd whispered “Freedom”, except for one person who couldn’t contain herself and screamed it out: FRRREEEEEEDOM!!!!

He continued his walk towards the fluttering vinyl poster of the sky, reflecting on his old age, his coming years in the hospice: “And when I die, and meet God, God will say ‘Welcome to Heaven’.” In the soldier’s other hand was an American flag, folded into a triangle. “And I’ll say to God: ‘I already know what Heaven’s like, because I come from America.’”

The crowd cheered. The old soldier made it to the stage, and passionately described the Ultimate Sacrifice. For America. And when demanding that we honor all those who had given everything, he gripped that folded American flag so hard it began to unfold as he shook it into the air.

Suddenly, the EFF founder returned and thanked him. The soldier received a standing ovation. The crowd was moved by what had just happened. Confused by the sudden interruption of the narrative, I checked my program. The soldier was a hired actor!

DECONSTRUCTING GLENN BECK

Finally, Glenn Beck came on. Glenn Beck’s popularity is absolutely fascinating to me. I’ve spent the latter half of the summer reading up on him and watching bits of his TV show. I’ve even started reading his latest book.

Beck has a number of appeals that contribute to his popularity. First, he has this multi-episode, narrative that stretches across all three medium he is distributed in: TV, Radio, and Books. Over the summer, he’s been focusing on the “big problem” in Washington DC. He had been telling viewers that he was going to reveal the “big problem” on a September 12th broadcast, as part of a tie in with his production company’s 9/12 project. On a two-hour special on 9/12, Beck revealed that the “big problem” in the government was corruption.

Like Buster Friendly in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Beck is everywhere, and episodically revealing to his followers a new part of his master plan.

And that’s what you could call the people there. Beck’s followers.

At the centerpiece of this multi-episodic narrative is the threat of complete destruction of the United States of America by evil forces unless action is taken.

“How many neighbors, Republican or Democrat, can you name who are actively trying to destroy the country?” Beck asked. The crowd was silent, trying to figure out if they were supposed to respond or remain silent. Beck sensed the insecurity of the crowd.

“Well, your answer should be none of your neighbors want to destroy America…. Well, maybe one or two.” Beck said with a wink. “But, how many people in Washington DC do you think are trying to destroy the country?”

The crowd cheered and erupted with shouts of “ALL OF THEM!!” and “THROW THEM OUT!!”

Moving on, Beck attacked progressivism as a disease. He explained the difference between “progress” and “progressivism”. Simply put, to Beck’s followers, progressive is more government regulation (which is seen as bad) and progress is less regulation (which is seen as good).
“In fact, all of Washington DC is trying to destroy the country!!” THROW THEM OUT! THROWN THEM OUT!! “So what do we do about them?” Beck asked. “How do we stop them from destroying the country?”

In additional to the apocalypse rhetoric, bamboozlement is central to Glennn Beck’s message. Listing off the bailouts, he repeats “nothing makes sense anymore”. The bamboozlement riles up the crowd. Being confused can serve to reinforce notions of conservative family values, traditional ideas about class mobility, and conservative ideas about the role of white Christians, as these things can be seen as cultural artifacts of a “simpler” time to which we must return in order to stop the confusion.

Quoting from the writings of the founding fathers, Beck spoke of libertarian, free-market values. “George Washington warned of this time.” Beck shook his finger, scolding the audience for letting allowing Obama to be elected. Beck turned to the crowd and told them how things should be, bringing up another central theme to Beck’s character: redemption.

Beck talked briefly of being a drug addict and coming back. He talked of working hard, pulling himself up by his bootstraps, and battling insecurities. Like George W. Bush, Glenn Beck is an everyman who has overcome addiction and made something of his life. Beck, unlike Bush, keeps his distance from becoming evangelical, and keeps God toned down in his writings and speech.

By removing God, Beck does something interesting. He creates himself as God, in essence. By the time Beck’s story of redemption has wandered back to the central theme of apocalypse, Beck says: “I [Glenn Beck] promise you, great and mighty miracles will happen in your lifetime”.

At an event like this, I had expected God to do the promising. Then things got a little weird.

Beck started talking about the war in Afghanistan. The idea of supporting the troops always drew big applause, but when Beck demanded, “[we must] win this war or bring the troops home”. I could feel people stop listening to him and starting thinking about what he had just said.
As if sensing his faux-pas, Beck finished up a few minutes after that with a thinly veiled call to revolution, and hurried off the stage to go to Mount Vernon in order to accept the key to the city.

The “All American Family” that had sang the national anthem at the beginning of the event started singing “Proud to be an American”, but people had already gotten up to leave. They were streaming up the aisles.

I watched the crowd as they left, since my mom didn’t want to get stuck in a slow-moving line. The crowd was mostly aging baby-boomers and young people like me. There were no Generation Xers there at all.

This could be for two reasons. The first is economic. Baby-boomers and young people simply have $25 extra dollars to spend on a Glenn Beck rally.

The second reason is sociological. With the 60’s worship that entertainment media is saturated in, perhaps people who grew up in that generation are looking for nostalgia and a sense of empowerment. They’ve been told by the media that their generation did something important, and the baby-boomers want to fell like they’re doing important again.

Even deeper, maybe baby-boomers are drawn to the idea of changing the world, because their children might have a lower standard of living than they enjoyed growing up. Beck's constant offer of participation (through consumption) is a way to set things right.

“Participation through consumption” has given Glenn Beck an extraordinary media empire His episodic “end-of-the-world” narrative, energy, and demographic appeal have netted him the top cable news ratings in his time slot, two books in the Amazon.com top 25 bestseller list, and top ratings for his nationally syndicated radio show.

As we left the rally, I wondered how long Glenn Beck’s popularity would last, and worried over Obama’s healthcare reform effort. Regardless of one’s position on healthcare reform, if something doesn’t go through, it’s going to be a disappointment to everyone who voted in a president who they hoped (however remotely, since many of us are very cynical), could get something done.