Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:29 pm
A segment on yesterday’s Glenn Beck show on Fox News was supposed to be about the Rev. Pat Robertson giving Americans financial advice, but it turned into a discussion of why the government can’t make people donate to charity, and how Obama in injecting socialism into the nation.
Here is the video from Media Matters:
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Beck said, “I guess my problem is our government now believes that they can force our government to be charitable, and also that they can stop all greed through regulation. Pat, I think there is only one cure for both of those. You can’t do that. Isn’t that the point of faith and religion and everything else, not government, but our faith to make us better people.”
Robertson replied, “Until a person’s heart is changed, until the inner motive is changed, we’re not going to have different conduct, and there is no government big enough to enforce that kind of conduct. It can’t do it. It was said by John Adams we don’t have a government or constitution capable of taming the animal passions of mankind. You can’t do that with government, and these socialists think you can.”
Robertson later said, “Franklin Roosevelt used the Great Depression to bring forth a dramatic change in the way we lived our lives. Obama and his crew are taking advantage of this to insert socialism and government control. He wind up taking over the automobile industry, the banking industry, and before long healthcare. It’s a massive power grab to satisfy the left.”
Think about this for a second, one man in this conversation, Robertson,
has made himself rich through charitable donations, yet he arguing against the government encouraging charity. The other man in this conversation is complaining about socialism, yet he has gotten very wealthy by broadcasting radio and television programs overly publicly owned airwaves. People often forget that the public still owns the airwaves, no matter who owns the station. This is how the FCC has maintained regulatory authority.
Only Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson could take a segment about giving financial advice, and turn it into an anti-Obama tirade. What is the heck would Pat Robertson be doing giving financial advice to anyone? What does he know? Without people giving him money, he wouldn’t have anything.
By the way, Beck and Robertson that the “this” Obama is supposed to be exploiting is the total collapse of the economy brought about by years of destructive Republican policies. Also, Obama didn’t take over the banking industry, Bush did, but this is something that has been conveniently forgotten by Republicans.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
