Steve recently took part in a lunchtime panel sponsored by a local radio station. A beefy young man in the audience grabbed the microphone and challenged the speakers, in a sneering and confrontational tone, to name one good thing about President Obama’s healthcare proposal.
Steve’s answer: People without insurance flood hospital emergency rooms and push up medical bills for everyone. So it would be in the “national interest” to expand insurance and hold down costs. “The national interest?” retorted the questioner in an even louder voice. “That sounds like fascism!”
We have been in this business a long time. We welcome tough questions and certainly don’t believe we have all the answers. But “fascism”? That’s over the line – way over the line – for any sensible or civilized conversation.
We don’t know what the beefy guy reads or to whom he listens, but we would bet he’s a disciple of Glenn Beck. The popular author and broadcaster who has turned nonstop name-calling into an art form is a big fan of the “f-word.”
On a recent show, Beck went after Christian churches that preach “social justice” (which includes just about all of them). “I beg you,” he told his followers, “look for the words ‘social justice’ and ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words.”
Then he explained what the “code words” mean: “Social justice was the rallying cry – economic justice and social justice – the rallying cry on both the communist front and the fascist front.” In case anyone missed the point, he held up a swastika and a hammer and sickle as he ranted.
Beck has made millions spewing such incendiary language, but in the process he is corrupting the very essence of democracy. Our system can only flourish if citizens with varying viewpoints accept the outcome of elections and respect the rule of the majority.
But if you think your rivals are “fascists,” if you consider politics a form of holy war, then you place yourself outside basic American traditions. Moreover, you tell your followers that verbal car bombs are an appropriate form of political discourse (which is why we think that guy had to be a resident of Glennbeckistan).
Beck is clearly a growth industry: a daily show on Fox News, a slew of best-selling books, a national speaking tour, headliner slots at conservative rallies and fundraisers. But even his friends are starting to get uneasy, and they should.
