Doctor Z anticipated his argument before this even aired: “Glenn Beck’s slap at McCain is a retroactive expression of the idea that conservatism is just one crushing defeat away from total victory.” Just so. Would conservatives really be organizing tea parties, wonders GB, if it were McCain pushing cap-and-trade? Maybe not — but then, McCain wouldn’t have pushed health-care reform or a stimulus sick with pork or withdrawal from Afghanistan either. If you take Beck’s logic seriously, the country would actually have been much better off if we’d elected Dennis Kucinich, because ooh boy, what a conservative backlash that would have generated. Let’s go as far left as we can — let’s pass every irreversible economy-destroying liberal program that we can — because the more damage we do, the greater the odds of a small-government wave in the future. We’re just one crushing defeat away — forever. Frankly, I don’t know why he says that he hopes we’re not on the path to becoming Venezuela in the next few years. What better way to inspire an awesomely awesome conservative renewal than having a full-blown socialist dictator in power?

Some day he’s going to get his wish for a viable small-government third party. And it’s going to break his heart into a million pieces when he discovers that they’re willing to compromise their principles in the interest of governance too.