Glen Beck's own "Little Red Book"

Sunrise confession time, folks.

This past weekend, Mrs. Mosley, CC and I took a trip to Tallahassee to see some old friends and visit some old haunts of ours. It was a good weekend up until our final stop at Barnes and Noble before leaving town. This was the spot Mrs. Mosley and I first met, so it should have been a nostalgic reverie. Instead, I walked past a display featuring Glen Beck's latest book: "America's March to Socialism : Why We're One Step Closer to Giant Missile Parades".

Heaven knows I come across enough of this type of bile through my hours on the Internet, but somehow this singularly absurd and offensive title (that will none-the-less probably sell quite well) was the straw that broke the camel's back. It nagged at me all the way back to Jacksonville and really put me into a depression by that evening which lasted all the way to the following night.

I suppose the real reason why this title (and it's author) did this when the Coulters and the O'Reillys before it only annoyed me, is because that he fancies himself the head of a movement. It doesn't matter that the movement is minuscule compared to the force that elected Obama. As the summer's protests proved, decibel level sometime matters more than actual numbers. Beck considers himself some sort of modern day Howard Beale, and 50% of ad revenue be damned, he isn't going quietly.

Then I read an article over at Salon titled, "Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life". I urge you to read it now as it delves into the ten tons of crazy that Beck has immersed himself into. It's the McCarthy era all over again, folks, as Beck has patterned himself after a Red scare relic named W. Cleon Skousen. The man became so vilified in his time that even J Edgar Hoover and mainline conservatives couldn't stand him, yet Beck has taken up his banner and made his life's work his own.

Why did this cheer me? Perhaps because McCarthy's movement eventually fell to common sense, so history may repeat itself. Perhaps because, like I said about Dubya five years ago, this linking of the Republican party with Beck's movement will become an albatross in time. Perhaps I just want to see possible Republican front runner Mitt Romney asked about the movement and Beck's inspiration since Romney's own church has definitively rejected him.

Things will get worse before they get better, but they will get better, folks. Hang in there.