Conservative Refocus

By Barry Secrest

Recently, a large number of Tea Party members and Conservatives were absolutely stunned when Glenn Beck  accused the Tea Party of racism, by stating that it appears, to him, that the Tea Party's dislike of Obama "must be about race" for preferring Newt Gingrich, as things currently stand in the GOP primary.

My, and many others', response? Say it ain't so, Glenn!

Not only is the Tea Party racist to Beck, but Beck actually prefers fellow Moderate, Mormon, Mitt Romney over Conservative Newt Gingrich. Yeah,*eye-roll,* go figure.

The interesting thing is that Mitt has frequently called himself a "Progressive Republican" in the not-too- distant past.  Rut-Roh....You see, to most of us, Progressive is code for Liberal, or even Communist.   Yeah, no joke.

So get this...

Hmm...."Houston, we may have a problem!"

But, poetic justice reigns, to be sure, in this case, because, to my knowledge, Gingrich has never called himself a Progressive. But hey, we still have a long way to go....

So, to recap, Beck calls the Tea Party racist for liking Gingrich, then calls Gingrich a Progressive, then says he will vote for Romney over Gingrich for being a Progressive.  Then we find out that Romney actually referred to himself as a Progressive....

Ya' just can't make this stuff up.

So, how can Beck  ignore the fact that a preponderance of Romney's major positions have mirrored Obama's in the past ten years, while, in fact, Romney has even admitted to being a Progressive in the past? Beck trotted out Gingrich's admiration for Republican President Theodore Roosevelt as one of his "many" factors in calling out Gingrich as a "Progressive."

Good thing Beck didn't know about Gingrich's later utterings with regard to Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's being the best Modern President of the century, man! He might have accused us of lynching parties, then! Psheww...that was close.

In the interview with Libertarian Judge, Andrew Napolitano, Beck clearly made his choice with regard to his preference for Romney over Gingrich in the below quote:

“He makes Mitt Romney look like a small government guy.” Beck explained that he’s not the biggest Romney fan, but he would be able to hold his nose and vote for him, so to speak.

Fascinating, that Beck chose, of all people, to actually play the Liberal "Race Card" against the Tea Party by saying that their support of Newt versus Obama has to be "racist in nature," after seeing an almost rabid support of Herman Cain literally pummeled into the ground by the mainstream media.  Even while the media continues to ignore Obama's similarly "unsubstantiated" and swept under the rug non-problems.

Here, in writing, are Beck's words:

“If you have a big government progressive, or a big government progressive in Obama… ask yourself this, Tea Party: is it about Obama’s race? Because that’s what it appears to be to me. If you’re against him but you’re for this guy, it must be about race. I mean, what else is it? It’s the policies that matter.”

We Conservatives, now, almost expect this sort of treatment from the Axis Press.  But from Conservative Glenn Beck? The "Race-Card city crier of celebridom?"

What in the hell have you been drinking, Glenn Beck? I do hope it's only Kool-Aid this time around. I can recall your Restoring Honor rally, which inspired many a Tea Partier's tear at how "simply wonderful" it all was during the gathering.

But what in the world happened between then and now, Beck?

In fact, we True Conservatives are going to have to stick with another Media Icon, good ole'  Rush Limbaugh, on this one as well, my Libertarian friend:

And for all you Independents, Moderates and even Liberals out there, don't get me wrong, we Conservatives for the most part, will vote for Romney, as well, if he is the nominee.  And, yes, we know what Gingrich said on Meet The Press, which pretty much countered everything he had previously stated.

But to call Newt a Progressive who mirrors Obama?  That's just patently over the top-- in even my "center-left oriented" friend's views.  Yeah, I listen to em', but then blow them off mostly.  Maybe Beck's going for the Moderates and non-Tea Party supporters in an effort to "expand" his TV Shows reach, hell, I don't know.

But, Beck should yet remember to "dance with the ones that brung him," at least every so often, and Beck, you should never, ever, bite the hand that feeds you. Because those same people you are insulting are, essentially, the only ones who have been defending you--up to this point.

The response among a large number of Conservatives on the various social networks was one, predictably, of righteous indignation, to put it mildly. Many stated they were simply done with Beck, some few, on the other hand, chose to stay in an element of complete denial, many even stating "he never called the Tea Party racist."  Hmm...yet again.

A number of well-known Conservatives, such as Breitbart, have stated "Glenn Beck is dead to me," while a host of writers and bloggers simply said, "No More."

But even more interestingly, the Mainstream Conservative Stars such as O'Reilly, Limbaugh and Hannity pretty much acted as if nothing had ever happened, not even mentioning the dust-up, at least not to my knowledge.

Regardless, I personally feel that Beck, after this strategic implosion, will dust himself off and get right back up ranting. But the damage has been done in both mine and many others' eyes. Regardless of Beck's supercilious bumblings, the man knows how to draw an audience, and no one can deny that he's simply brilliant at what he does and in how he presents his many compelling arguments.

But, I do hope he will back off of this particular rant while there is still time.

I'm just saying....