Quotes of the day
posted at 9:00 pm on August 28, 2010 by Allahpundit
Mr. Beck made a surprise visit on Friday to a convention held by FreedomWorks, a Tea Party umbrella group, for Tea Party supporters. He received a thunderous welcome from a crowd of about 1,600 in Constitution Hall.
He told the crowd that he had begun planning his march on Washington a year ago, thinking “it was supposed to be political.”
“And then I kind of feel like God dropped a giant sandbag on my head,” he said.
“My role, as I see it, is to wake America up to the backsliding of principles and values and most of all of God,” he said. “We are a country of God. As I look at the problems in our country, quite honestly, I think the hot breath of destruction is breathing on our necks and to fix it politically is a figure that I don’t see anywhere.”
***
In a way, the rally today mirrored rallies held for then-candidate Barack Obama in 2007 and leading up to the election of 2008. Both this rally and many of Obama’s featured mesmerizing speakers, who chose to inspire audiences by rhetorically empowering them to take matters into their own hands.
While Beck’s rally emphasized belief in God, Obama’s generally emphasized himself as a savior of the American people. This, I believe, was the contrast the talk radio and television personality was trying to achieve. Beck’s rally, and the speakers who addressed the crowd, were continually thanking God and Beck for bringing such an inspiring crowd together…
Only toward the end of the program did Beck refer to Democrats, Republicans, and independents. But it still wasn’t political. It was a unity call, imploring everyone to come together and unite to “restore honor.” It was a post-partisan moment. Similar, in a way, to Obama’s 2004 DNC speech, when the then-state senator from Illinois suggested that we should not remain isolated in a “red America” or a “blue America,” but should come together as the United States of America.
***
We need to think about the success of Beck’s rally Saturday and ask what it says about the lack of moral authority in this country today. We also need to wonder what it says about us as a culture that so many Americans on a Saturday in August and more than two million a day via Fox News come to Beck and apparently hear something in his hodge-podge of elementary-school history and mishmash of moral platitudes and bromides that they find meaningful.
Moral authority — that’s what the rally was really about. That’s what the bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” at the end of the rally were all about. That’s what all the talk of standing on “hallowed ground” was all about. That’s what the repeated use of words like “honor,” “integrity” and “trust” were all about…
That’s what what was so powerful about November 2008 in Grant Park when Barack Obama took the stage on election night: Millions of Americans thought they were watching someone who brought moral authority to the White House. I know I did.
Sadly, millions now feel Obama has since lost it with too many morning-after flip-flops on moral issues, entertainment TV show appearances, and days on the golf course as the economy struggles.
***
“Restoration” is a theme he has a gift for: a gift not only of analytical insight but of personal experience with balancing justice and mercy, and distinguishing between self-deception and realistic hope.
And he’s right about this, too: America can’t be set on a better course solely with changes in federal policy. Law and government don’t – can’t – make the people good. They don’t make us eligible for liberty. Our law and government are only as good as we are. It’s the people who have to change. And spiritual revival never looks like something organized by State Department protocol; when people are changing from the inside, there are rallies, hortatory preaching, gabfests, sorrow, joy.
I urge my fellow conservatives not to despise this phenomenon or be disparaging about it. All our futures depend on the character of the people around us. Fear, defensiveness, and moral weakness in the people are the best friends of the tyrant. None of us can resist the siren-call of statist collectivization single-handedly. It is not embarrassing or over-the-top for people to gather in public to affirm that there’s such a thing as good character, and that we can’t do without it. It is meaningful and life-changing to many. It is necessary.
***
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Add to that, No vetting of Obama by the LSM…ever.
kirkill on May 22, 2013 at 2:37 PM
Corruption? Provable corruption?!? Now can I get a check too?
I’m tired of being the check writer.
Squiggy on May 22, 2013 at 2:39 PM
Why are you trying to politicize this thing? It merely took a year to properly select and vet the person who would ask the question at the ABA meeting – which is the proper venue for such revelations.
Also, the IRS leadership was actively searching for the culprit at root cause of all this – Mr./Ms I Don’t Know. We have heard in testimony from a wide variety of Administration employees that this person – I Don’t Know – is at fault. Perhaps a BOLO should be issued for I Don’t Know and have their azz hauled before one of the Congressional committees to explain their behavior.
in_awe on May 22, 2013 at 2:41 PM
Guys, you over-estimate HAL.
He’d be up against the wall, screaming “But I’m one of you! Not them! I don’t belong here!”
The fate of most useful idiots.
The_Livewire on May 22, 2013 at 2:46 PM
The funny thing is, you think you’re a member of the protected class. Judging by your lack of sophistication, you’re definitely not one of the special people, just another fellow traveler. And they are always the first sacrificed by the ‘elite’.
Squiggy on May 22, 2013 at 2:50 PM
Great point, can all of us conservatives who paid taxes while this abuse was going on get our taxes back? That would be a heck of a class action lawsuit.
theCork on May 22, 2013 at 2:52 PM
Releasing the report in September might have got in the way of stealing the presidential election of 2012!
Priorities people, priorities!
slickwillie2001 on May 22, 2013 at 2:55 PM
Nixon won also with a much bigger mandate (49 states) than Obama ever dreamed of. That didn’t stop your side from going after him did it.
chemman on May 22, 2013 at 3:09 PM
You don’t see arming Mexican Drug Cartels and the 300+ citizens (and counting) to include 1 U.S. BPA, killed with those weapons & the follow-on cover up as a case of “high crimes and misdemeanors”?
You don’t see asking Al Qaeda, the perpetrators of 9/11, to protect our US Ambassador, refusing to provide security, ordering a rescue team to stand down thereby abandoning Americans fighting for their lives to die, then lying & covering up to hide their ‘incompetence’ a case of “high crimes and misdemeanors”?
You don’t call a complete lack of control resulting in Constitutional Violations and broken laws through an abuse of power & mis-use of govt agencies (IRS & DOJ) to target Americans & the medai a case of “high crimes and misdemeanors”?
There comes a point where even ‘stupidity’ reaches the level of ‘CRIMINAL’ and a ‘THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY’.
That being said, this is NOT a case of igorance or stupidity – this is an arrogant, narcissistic man tutored by Communists, mentored by racists hate-spewing Anti-Americans, spoiled by the media his 1st term that has flaunted his lack of concern for both the Rule of Law and the Constitution, giving them both a back seat to his agenda. He, like every other Liberal and certainly every politician in Washington, believes he is above both the very laws they pass for us as well as the Constitutional they (Liberals/Socialists) call ‘outdated’!
easyt65 on May 22, 2013 at 3:16 PM
easyt65 on May 22, 2013 at 3:16 PM
(The reason I listed all those issues is because according to the WH these were all cases of ‘I don’t know / Wasn’t me’ incompetence.)
easyt65 on May 22, 2013 at 3:17 PM
Follow the UNIONS!!!!
All these agency’s staff are exchanging target information through their Union shop stewards.
barnone on May 22, 2013 at 3:23 PM
THERE IS NO ‘THERE’ THERE, PEOPLE!
(Poor b@stard!)
easyt65 on May 22, 2013 at 3:50 PM
Seriously. I don’t think I could get that drunk.
CurtZHP on May 22, 2013 at 3:51 PM
Miller:
“I personally conducted an investigation into the IRS issue. Who did the teargeting’? I object to the term ‘targeting’. Schulman said to you that none of this was going on…did he lie? While what he said was wrong, he did not lie. Does Congress deserve to know what was going on? I anwered the questions that you asked truthfully, do not feel obligated to tell you about problems going on, and I thought you would find out the same way Obama finds out everything – through the news. What am I going to do to ensure this doesn’t happen again and what will I do to those who carried this out? Nothing – I leave at the end of June…not my problem.
The IG donated to the Obama campaign.
The man behind the IRS probe (No, not Miller) dated Michelle in college…
————–
Now WHY in the world would anyone an Independent Investigatice Counsel to step in and investigate these scandals when the DOJ & Obama administration can easily do an INTERNAL investigation themselves?!
(Ummm, part of the administration’s/Holder’s/IRS/DOJ argument is that these scandals happened becasue they were/are so incompetent/disorganized/ignorant….but then try to convince us that no Independent Counsel is needed to come in and investigate because they are competent enough to do that themselves?! What the …)
easyt65 on May 22, 2013 at 3:58 PM
(Meanwhile, quietly being reported in the back pages of newspapers:
‘Fed chairman warns ending stimulus would carry substantial risks…’
‘Bernanke Has Now Injected Foreign Banks With Over $1 Trillion In Cash… ‘
– ‘Ending STIMULUS’? I thought we HAD ended ‘stimuls’ spending?!
– That would be $1 Trillion in BORROWED tax payer dollars going OUT of the United States
easyt65 on May 22, 2013 at 4:04 PM
Drudge has a link to a story that The IG used to date Michelle Obama??
huh?
workingclass artist on May 22, 2013 at 4:30 PM
I’m thinking Obama is starting to regret that. He could be retired in Hawaii, playing golf, raking in millions in speaking fees from his adoring minions.
Instead, he’s probably sitting in the oval office, sulking, feeling like a combination of Tony Montana and Richard Nixon.
MichaelGabriel on May 22, 2013 at 4:57 PM
Prediction:
Boehner will cry, Issa will develop laryngitis, Cheney will tsk, tsk, Sarah Palin for daring to defend America, and the Alinsky-ites? They too will skate free.It’s the Chicago way.
Don L on May 22, 2013 at 4:59 PM
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