It seems that Glenn Beck decided last week to graphically illustrate his perpetual psychotic break as a "scale of freedom," which I have roughly reproduced below.
Anarchy-->US Constitution-->Tea Party-->-->-->-->-->-->-->-->-->-->-->-->-->-->GOP-->Moderates-->Democratic Party-->Hollywood & Media-->Totalitarianism
The Tea Party is where "America is," as Beck explained it, hence its wide occupation of the political spectrum betwixt Anarchy-lite (the Constitution) and "the smallest-government GOP guy you can think of." You will note that "Moderates" are located between GOPers and Democrats, but that's just media trickery, a kind of mirage, tutored Beck. In reality they, the moderates, are "fleeing the parties" and heading graphically left, which is actually right--i.e., Tea Party territory.
So why is this significant? Why are the dissociative ravings of an incurable huckster noteworthy? Because Tea Partiers vote; they find primary elections especially charming opportunities to do so; they reject traditional media and follow deracinated whackjobs like Glenn Beck instead--and though Beck seems to be encouraging an organized movement of the right away from the GOP, the red-state/district primaries in which Tea Partiers vote and thereby decide general-election outcomes remain Republican affairs.
Nonetheless Beck has located his moderates--the Tea Partiers--squarely outside the conventional two-party system, which leaves for the future only a third-party option, with Beck, perhaps, as the anti-Rove. He has to go somewhere, and he might as well go there. And if Beck does go there, he could become, paradoxically, the GOP's savior.
How long before Beck talks some of his followers into catrating themselves while waiting to be transported to the mother ship hiding behind the moon?
I have the over/under at 2.5 years.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | February 10, 2013 at 10:56 AM