As you may have heard, Glenn Beck is going to be leaving his horrifyingly popular show on FOX. It will be the end of an era – an era of shameless and blatant contradictions and misinformation, delivered via histrionic performances so intense they border on the seemingly pathological.
Longtime followers of the Glenn Beck Show will perhaps be aware of the long history of inconsistencies and apparent complete unawareness of past events, even if he participated in them, that Mr. Beck suffers with. There are plenty of examples, but the time that he said “when I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I’m just like, ‘Oh, shut up!’ I’m so sick of them,” and then a few years later started “The 9/12 Project” to try to promote the virtue and selflessness that he associates with our collective response to September 11th – well, that might be my personal favorite.
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It is maybe not entirely surprising, then, that Glenn Beck professes to be entirely unaware of any homophobia in the Republican party. Specifically, despite the fervent Republican support of DADT, he doesn’t know of any Republicans arguing that gay people can’t fight (the Advocate and Equality Matters note that congressman Louie Gohmert said that “allowing gays to serve was equivalent to sending people in wheelchairs into battle.” (which is really ableist in addition to being homophobic)). Also, he’s confused about why anyone would claim that Rick Santorum is anti-gay, which seems so head-in-the-sand as to be completely baffling.
HARD KNOCK LIFE
Rick Santorum has been so consistently virulently homophobic that he has revenge anal sex terminology named after him, a privilege that I believe is his alone in the world. Also, more recently, he’s responsible along with Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner for trying to allocate government funds to defend DOMA in one of the worst financial crises in American history. So there’s that.
It’s not hard to understand that intensive 1984-style cognitive dissonance has proven to be a major moneymaker for Beck and others like him; it is perhaps less than productive at this point to ask them to acknowledge reality, or even things that they themselves have said and done in the not-so-distant past. In the spirit of educating and informing those who are slightly less hell-bent on living in a fantasy world, however, here are the top ten reasons in rough chronological order why a reasonable person might believe the Republican party to have a problem with homophobia. Enjoy, People Who Are Not Glenn Beck.
1. Serial Attacks On Gay Adoption
2. Donald Trump
3. Republican Attempts To Make “Recruitment” Punishable By Jail Time
4. Gay Marriage, Also Sex Illegal
5. Wisconsin Governor Hates Gay People As Much As He Apparently Hates Everyone Else
6. GOP Favorite Thinks It’s OK To Lose Your Job As Long As It Hurts A Gay Person
7. Republicans Try To Shut Down Art Exhibit Because It’s Too Gay, Is Offensive
8. The Herculean Efforts On John McCain’s Part To Save DADT
9. Ann Coulter
10. Prop 8, Just Everything About Prop 8
Now you can just go ahead and immediately forget about all of that, and you’re ready to be a goldfish with a famous TV show and a million billion dollars! Best of luck, Glenn.
I just wish the GOP would have THOUGHT about the consequences when they allowed the religious right any power at all in their party. I’m definitely not a Democrat and I’m sick to death of having to say I’m an “independent” so that other GLBT folks won’t look at me like a self-hating homosexual because I’m a Republican. There is nothing of the traditional Republican party in what the religious right wants for our country.
I did a blog about this actually.
http://meredithancret.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-love-being-lumped-together-with.html
I guess what I’m trying to say is that not all Republicans are Santorum or Palin or Boehner. Some of us just prefer small government and would really love to kick the Religious Right to the curb so they can stop making the GOP look like a bunch of morons.
So you’ve never noticed that the GOP had abandoned classical conservative values, like, 40 years ago? LOL
PS, if you want small government, you should move to a nation that doesn’t have 300 million people in it.
The entire GOP hasn’t abandoned classical conservatism. Just because the nut jobs are the ones who get the most air time, doesn’t mean we are all that way. We live a society that loves scandal and radical opposites, having moderates debating rationally wouldn’t exactly invite the same level of mockery for both sides would it?
Small government does not necessarily mean small country, it is possible to have small government or at least smaller than the behemoth we currently have (maybe not as small as, say, we could have in a tiny country).
meredith is right — the republican party has not always been associated with/dominated by the kind of extreme social conservatives it is now. largely during the george w bush era, the GOP realized the religious conservatives were a very appealing base due to the sheer amount of cash they’re willing to dole out in exchange for various initiatives. it wasn’t always like this.
The funny thing…if the GOP would just bring in moderate candidates they would probably still get the religious conservative vote since we all know they aren’t going to vote Democrat unless someone holds a gun to their head. Then the GOP could get moderate and independent votes, as well as stop looking like idiots.
Oh well…no one ever claimed politicians were rational…
“they aren’t going to vote Democrat unless someone holds a gun to their head. ”
I LOLed. Always appreciate the irony of things!
As a writer I really should have seen that irony before someone else pointed it out, rofl.
The real irony is that I’m a Republican who couldn’t fire a gun to save her own life…I have problems aiming my bottle of pepper spray effectively even.
The religious right’s connection to the republican party goes back to the late ’70s when you see organizations like Focus on the Family and Moral Majority being founded.
There is a definite disconnect between the traditional republican leadership and the religious right who have now entered the leadership of the party. The religious right have done an amazing job of tirelessly working their way into and up from local school boards to state representatives to the federal government. Now the traditional republican leadership has to deal with this monster they’ve invited and has now arrived in their tents. The religious right are no longer content with republicans paying lip service to socially conservative ideals while actually pushing fiscally conservative policies and have now produced their own candidates.
Anyway, that’s my understanding of it. I’d be happy to hear another version of events.
“Revenge anal sex terminology” sounds a lot like you’re talking about revenge anal sex.
yup definitely lol’ed trying to puzzle that one out. as in, does revenge anal sex happen so frequently that it merits its own slang term? but then i clicked the link and it all made sense.
“It is maybe not entirely surprising, then, that Glenn Beck professes to be entirely unaware of any homophobia in the Republican party.”
Isnt that the best answer a political figure could possibly give… I was not aware of that. Really? No seriously? becuase I think if you are truly unaware of whats going on within your own political party then maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to express your political views on national television!
I think it was the Barbara Walter’s special of the most fasinating people and he did an interview with her. It was then that I decided he was an arrogant ass!
All though this is not really related I just have say I’m super excited. That I am reading this in the mobile version. Makes it super easy on my BB!
Glenn Beck’s a MAN?! What? I was so sure that Glenn Beck was a woman…I’m so confused.
I was thinking of Glenn Close, who is in fact definitely a woman. How embarrassing.
honest mistake
Yeah, I’ve made that mistake several times myself.
I thought Pat Robertson was female, and gave a very impassioned debate speech about HER hypocrisy. Moment of failure, and I now always google for pictures coz it sucked to lose for that detail!
Guarantee yours was the best speech there
Wow, Glenn Beck is so hot
I long to feel his chest hair rubbing against my back
I almost had to commit suicide aftyer that last comment
After is too hard a word for me
Not surprising. Your brain must have been recoiling in horror at the image you’d fed it. No capacity left for words…
*sigh*
Glenn Beck makes me tired. Glenn Beck also makes me want to punch him in the face. I’m sure I’ll have to get in line.
I like the picture of him crying.
I feel absolutely no sympathy.
I don’t feel bad about liking it, either.
I bet it’s a reference to Jill Greenberg’s “End Times”, which has pictures of children crying (it’s the same style and lighting):
http://kopeikingallery.com/exhibitions/view/end-times