Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:01 pm
Glenn Beck: The Grinch who has to ruin everything
On his radio show today Glenn Beck ranted against the World Cup because he proclaimed the World Cup is just like Barack Obama. Beck said, “I believe that everything you need to know about Barack Obama’s policies can be explained in the World Cup…Congratulations to Barack Obama and his polices that will have as much success as the World Cup in America.”
Here is the audio courtesy of Media Matters
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Beck said, “Barack Obama’s policies are the World Cup. Their policies, his policies are the World Cup of political thought, “It doesn’t matter how you sell it to us. It doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get. It doesn’t matter how many bars open early. It doesn’t matter how many beer commercials they run. We don’t want the World Cup. We don’t like the World Cup. We don’t like soccer. We want nothing to do with it. You can package it any way — you can spend all kinds of money. You can force it on our television sets. We will not enjoy the World Cup.”
Beck continued, “The rest of the world like Barack Obama’s policies. We do not, and I’m cool with that. If you want Barack Obama’s policies or the World Cup in your country have at it. I don’t hate you. I don’t understand you, but I don’t hate you….I believe that everything you need to know about Barack Obama’s policies can be explained by the World Cup… Congratulations to Barack Obama and his polices that will have as much success as the World Cup in America. Go try those polices someplace else. They’ll be wildly successful.”
As usual, Beck is wrong on both counts. Media Matters pointed out that 120 million Americans watched the 2006 World Cup, and 17 million Americans watched the final, which did not feature the US team. The 2006 World Cup final drew more viewers than any other professional sports championship outside of the Super Bowl. Lots of Americans, who may not be soccer fans, enjoy the event that is the World Cup. I guess those 120 million viewers weren’t what Beck would consider real Americans.
Obama’s policies have been very successful, or maybe Beck hasn’t noticed that the total American economic collapsed that he was warning his viewers about in 2009 hasn’t happened. Beck also hasn’t noticed that the economy is getting better, and slowly more people are finding jobs. Those things are happening because of Obama’s so called “unsuccessful” policies. The notion that Obama is unsuccessful president is right wing science fiction.
Beck was trying to tie Obama’s foreign policy to the World Cup, but most people don’t view a more open and cooperative foreign policy as a bad thing. In fact, after the resounding failure of George W. Bush’s bullying unilateral foreign policy, Obama has gotten some of his highest marks from the American people on his foreign policy. Even though Right Wing jihads like Beck will never understand this, most Americans don’t want to go it alone living in a state of never ending fear and war. They want peace, cooperation, and celebration, which on a very small level the World Cup represents.
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
