Too Little, Too Late
Conservatives have been strangely divided about the revolution in Egypt. Some conservatives have praised the popular uprising while others have said we must stand behind Mubarak. Then there’s Glenn Beck. He’s turned his crazy up to 11, talking about a “caliphate” taking over Europe and linking it to his favorite enemy, progressives.
Beck has come under criticism for his doomsday vision of the potential fallout from the Egyptian revolution. He has warned that the world is “being divvied up” by the “uber left” and the “Islamicists,” and that what was formerly “Ancient Babylon” could emerge as the new seat of “evil” and center of the new caliphate.
His chalkboard of truth has told him this is true because of the following:
“1. Groups from the hardcore socialist and Communist left and extreme Islam will work together because they are both a common enemy of Israel and the Jew.
2. Groups from the hardcore socialist and Communist left and extreme Islam will work together because they are the common enemy of capitalism and the western way of life.
3. Groups from the hardcore socialist and Communist left and extreme Islam will work to overturn relatively stable countries, because, in the status quo, they are both ostracized from power.”
Having Glenn Beck as the top conservative “intellectual” on Egypt is driving the neocons crazy. Mainstream conservatives like Bill Kristol are finally speaking out against Beck’s nuttiness.
But hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.
Nor is it a sign of health when other American conservatives are so fearful of a popular awakening that they side with the dictator against the democrats. Rather, it’s a sign of fearfulness unworthy of Americans, of short-sightedness uncharacteristic of conservatives, of excuse-making for thuggery unworthy of the American conservative tradition.
It was not so long ago, after all, when conservatives understood that Middle Eastern dictatorships such as Mubarak’s help spawn global terrorism. We needn’t remind our readers that the most famous of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta, was an Egyptian, as is al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al Zawahiri. The idea that democracy produces radical Islam is false: Whether in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian territories, or Egypt, it is the dictatorships that have promoted and abetted Islamic radicalism. (Hamas, lest we forget, established its tyranny in Gaza through nondemocratic means.) Nor is it in any way “realist” to suggest that backing Mubarak during this crisis would promote “stability.” To the contrary: The situation is growing more unstable because of Mubarak’s unwillingness to abdicate. Helping him cling to power now would only pour fuel on the revolutionary fire, and push the Egyptian people in a more anti-American direction.
We’re talking about Bill Kristol here, who’s right as often as a stopped clock. He’s right that Beck is of the Bircher wing of conservatives but he’s nuts if he thinks Republicans can distance themselves from him now. Sorry guys, you own him and his crazy word games.
Tags: Bill Kristol, Egypt, Glenn Beck
Hahaha.. Glenn Beck is mad. He attacked Kristol on his radio show.
I think the answer is obvious. Kristol is part of the Islamo-progressive conspiracy.
Actually, not the “Bircher wing” of the conservative movement, the LIBERTARIAN WING.
We libertarians oppose Islamo-Fascism because of the threat it poses to our social liberties – gay rights, against marijuana legalization, stoning of “loose women,” against gambling, against booze, no more bikinis at Rehobeth. Really, can one of you liberals explain to this libertarian, exactly what is it to like about Sharia Law.
I went to Europe twice in the last 10 years backpacking Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland. The change has been enormous since the first time I went. It’s now dark, gloomy, no more topless women sunbathing at the beaches of St Tropez, and Nice. Turkish dudes harassing everyone in southern Germany. Even formerly sexy Barcelona is getting Muslim prudish.
What you’re seeing is a split between libertarians like Pamela Geller, Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Dennis Miller, and the social conservatives like Kristol, and Charles Krauthammer.
Eric – Newark, DE
havent heard “islamo-fascism” in a while. Maybe because it is a term that makes no sense. It is just a boogyman word…. oooooo fascism is scary!
Eric, what side do you coem down on? Given how you bandy about the term “islamo-fascism” I take it you are against the people who are PEACEFULLY rallying for their LIBERTIES. Do you realize they are not rallying for “islamo anything”? I find it shocking that people who claim to be all about liberty from an oppressive regime would even consider supporting someone who tortures his own people, denies freedom of the press, rigs elections…. this list goes on. However, it is so typically conservative to throw out all notions of “liberty” when you think your safety is at a slight risk. especially the liberties of different people who pray a different way on a different side of the globe.
Also, any political faction that claims at its standardbarers; $arah Palin(tm), Glenn Beck, Dennis Miller and Ted Nugent is not one i care to hear anything about foreign policy on….. or really any opinion for that matter. All of them are phonies who will say anything to dumb people for money.
It isn’t as though Europeans are embracing Sharia Law. The French banned traditional headscarves for women in public schools and other public buildings.And the Swiss banned the building of minarets on mosques. A European friend tells me that the nude beaches of St. Tropez and other places are still there. Europeans are still free to go to them and still free to be nude on them. What does seem to be passe is public nudity for the sake of public nudity. But a passing fashion isn’t exactly a test of anyone’s liberty. And it is VERY odd to reach for public nudity as a test of one’s individual liberty.
Back to the topic — apparently Joe Klein hears that conservatives are worried that Beck is damaging their brand:
I doubt we’ll see a mirror-Olbermann at FOX — wingnuts own their wingnuts like nobody’s business.
Really, can one of you liberals explain to this libertarian, exactly what is it to like about Sharia Law.
Why are you asking us? I support a secular democracy. You should probably ask your friends in the GOP who want to impose Christian law on us what the appeal is. Surely you understand the concept of people being able to freely exercise their own religion don’t you?
Also, haha at the supposed “libertarians” like Pam Geller. Isn’t she one who’s telling certain religious groups they aren’t welcome here. That doesn’t sound like liberty.
there is no “liberty” in libertarianism, pandora. all it means is “Christian’s” “liberty” to throw out the “others”
I thought i was a nihilist for a while in high school…. libertarianism is even more idiotic than nihilism. If they actually got what they wanted, they wouldnt know how to deal with is and demand the government, or society help them.
Really, can one of you liberals explain to this libertarian, exactly what is it to like about Sharia Law.
This Sharia Law business is one of the more baffling straw men erected by the right.
Even O’Reilly last night tried to ask Obama if he wanted the Muslim Brotherhood to prevail in Egypt.
“Republicans have approached Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes about the potential embarrassment that the paranoid-messianic rodeo clown may bring upon their brand.”
LOL! That quote cracks me up. Does anyone really think that it is possible to really damage the Republican “brand” when the movement’s leading public intellectuals are Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, Beck, Hannity and O’Reily?
It is like saying that ducks are worried that someone is going to discover that they are covered with feathers.