Surrendermonkeys

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Glenn Beck, via Salon, via Steve Benen:

On his show Wednesday, Beck tried to puzzle out the political meaning of the attack on the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Alleged shooter James Von Brunn, Beck said, is "a lone gunman nutjob." Fair enough. "You're going to see a lot of nutjobs coming out of the woodwork now." Uh-oh. Scarier still, all of our enemies may be working together. "They'd like to destroy us and they will work with anyone," Beck says ominously.

You see, crazed militants, whether Islamists or white supremacists like Von Brunn, are responding to increasing "pressure." Beck doesn't excuse political violence, but he does see a cause. Several, actually. "It's the economy, it is political correctness, it's corruption in Washington, it's the militant Islam. It's all of these things."

This seems like a rather typical laundry list of conservative complaints with current affairs, and not too far off from the factors listed in the Department of Homeland Security report that Beck scoffs at. (Of the report, Beck protests that violence "is not the work of right-wing conservatives.") Then, to top it off, Beck throws in the General Motors bailout as another "pressure," drawing an amen from guest Harry Binswanger. Binswanger adds that this sort of violence is "a leftist phenomenon." "Right," says Beck.

Shorter Glenn Beck: "This country's move to the political left is the root cause of violent rightwing terrorism, and we should surrender to the terrorists before it gets worse."

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