On Friday, in commentary entitled Turning MLK’s dream into a nightmare, I previewed Conservative talk-show host Glen Beck’s rally that took place on Saturday. Therefore, it would clearly be remiss of me not to publish a follow up. So here it is:
Beck incited a fair amount of indignation, even anger, by promoting this rally at the Lincoln Memorial with a clarion call to “take our country back [and] reclaim the Civil Rights Movement.” Not surprisingly nobody was more indignant at Beck’s effrontery than black civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton.
Imagine the disappointment the hundreds of thousands (of mostly white supporters of the Tea Party and Republican Party) who heeded his call must have felt then, when Beck turned this expected political rally into a religious revival – complete with Beck preaching like Billy Graham instead of protesting like Thomas Paine.
After all, these folks wear their Christian fundamentalism on their sleeves and they hardly needed to travel from all over the country just to hear Beck bellow the same religious platitudes at them on Saturday that their pastors bellow at them in church every Sunday. (And I have no doubt that many attendees will be even more disappointed when they find out that he’s a Mormon, which for them is almost as sacrilege as being a Muslim….)
On the other hand, Beck’s conversion on the road to Washington, DC must have filled Sharpton with a sense of political vindication. Not least because he publicly admonished Beck against doing anything that would defile the anniversary of MLK’s 1963 “I have A Dream” speech. Sharpton also warned him against trying to usurp his role as the de facto leader of the Civil Rights Movement by proceeding pursuant to his (Beck’s) clarion call. Instead of defying Sharpton, Beck turned to Jesus. Indeed, so much so that, in a conversion worthy of Saul of Tarsus, he’s even expressing “regret” now for calling President Obama a racist.
Beyond this, the only thing noteworthy about Beck’s rally was the extent to which he went to feature black folks. Unfortunately, this led to the pandering spectacle of Beck awarding a black pastor his “Medal for Honor”, awarding a black baseball player his “Medal for Honor”, and enlisting MLK’s niece to try her best to emulate her “Uncle Martin”. Hell, he even gave this heretofore obscure niece more stage time than Sarah Palin….
That said, Beck deserves unqualified credit for raising $5.5 million dollars for the “Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides scholarships and services to family members of military members.”
I should also mention that he clearly succeeded in demonstrating that he’s just as big a draw among teabaggers as Palin. Apropos of this, despite his belated efforts to eschew politics, many at this event were reportedly aching to vent the “revolutionary” political views that earned the Tea Party its nut-job reputation. This is why it remains to be seen what kind of backlash Beck will suffer for disappointing so many of them (with his affected kumbaya shtick) on this very public stage….
Meanwhile, at his simultaneous rally, Sharpton did his usual thing – complete with the MLK-inspired oratory that comes so naturally to him. But nothing demonstrated which one would have enjoyed MLK’s seal of approval quite like his son, Martin Luther King III, shunning Beck’s to be featured at Sharpton’s rally.
Related commentaries:
Turning MLK’s dream into a nightmare
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