Thousands of Tea Party activists will descend on the nation's capital this weekend, as Glenn Beck launches his "Restoring Honor" rally to be held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. It's unclear why Glenn Beck is trying to align his campaign with that of the Civil Rights movement, especially as some Tea Partiers have discussed repealing the Civil Rights Act.In Beck's defense, among luminary speakers like Sarah Palin and Beck himself, Dr. Alveda King--niece to MLK--will be providing some diversity top-cover as a guest speaker as well. But this King is a tad different than her relative when it comes to embracing diversity: she compared homosexuality to genocide, the logic being that if we all go gay, the world population will go to zero (because our current 6 billion number is dangerously low?). MLK she is not.
While Beck sites are stirring about the rally, there is relatively little information on what the purpose of the rally is. It is branded as being apolitical, in fact, attendees are being told not to bring signs as they will detract from the "peaceful message." In one presumably official trailer, a poorly dressed soldier in an outdated uniform hands a child a flag in the middle of a field and has an eerie undertone of a sort of call-to-arms.
The associated Facebook page has some insight into the purpose of the event:
Throughout history America has seen many great leaders and noteworthy citizens change her course. It is through their personal virtues and by their example that we can live as a free country. On August 28th, come celebrate America by honoring our heroes, our heritage and our future.
Join the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and many more for this non-political event that pays tribute to America’s service personnel and other upstanding citizens who embody our nation’s founding principles of integrity, truth and honor.
Our freedom is possible only if we remain virtuous. Help us restore the values that founded this great nation. Come join us on August 28th in our pledge to restore honor at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
As a veteran, I'm glad people are recognizing the sacrifices servicemen make, but this sounds hauntingly like its the politicization of patriotism. Indeed, conservatives have a strong tradition of being unable to disassociate patriotism from political views. The first sentence of the last paragraph--and the title of the rally--indicates that this has less to do with honoring our veterans than it does restoring some presumably lost American value.
What that lost virtue is, I'm sure Glenn Beck will tell us. I'll go ahead and wager that he'll try to marry the two--his political angle with patriotism--by saying the attendees must take a cue from service members and take up the burdensome task of defending American [insert conservative ideal here] from assault. Call to arms indeed. Forget that US servicemen vow to support and defend the deliberately amoral, non-religious, government instruction manual called Constitution of the United States. Somehow that Constitution will be portrayed as under assault and it will be Beck's duty to defend it.
He'll likely tie in MLK's ultimate sacrifice to his country and from there encourage activism from his followers to do the same. There's also rumor that he'll be unveiling a collective plan, called "The Plan", to restore America to its founding principles, one of which must be capitalism because the details of the plan will no doubt be released in his newest book called "The Plan."
From Beck's blog: All of the above will culminate in The Plan, a book that will provide specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps that each of us can take to play a role in this Refounding.
What is worth noting is that this rally is being done in concert with the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, a group dedicated to providing financial support to surviving family members of fallen Special Operations soldiers, a very noteworthy cause if ever there was one. Hopefully the "Restoring Honor" rally will bring more money to this cause without attaching political stigma to its decidedly apolitical cause.
That will be difficult as he'll also be plugging a new book, a 100 year plan to re-found America, and celebrating the "birthday of a new national movement to restore our great country." How he intends to do that without getting political will be his greatest trick of all.
As for Facebook comments regarding the rally on Beck's site, here are a few highlights:
- I pray for the safety of Glen Beck and his family during the "Restore Honor" rally in DC this weekend.. Without him and others like him.. we would be shopping in grocery stores with armed guards with oozies at the doors.
- Through prayer we have decided to attend this great event.
- I hope I can view this on s-span
- Glenn Beck, you have got into my heart, you have my respect, & i would trust you with my life.
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