There’s been a lot of talk on Facebook and Twitter today about Glenn Beck hosting The Future of Freedom Foundation’s Jacob Hornberger, Students for Liberty’s Zak Slayback and yours truly, on his The Blaze television show yesterday. Here’s a clip, if you missed it:
First, a few thoughts on Beck in general.
I have been critical of Beck in the past, particularly when he’s said things disagreeable to the liberty movement. Some of them pretty bad. I’ve also been praiseworthy of Beck, when he’s promoted things of interest to the liberty movement, on a platform greater than most of us will ever achieve.
I remember Beck doing back-to-back days of his Fox News show promoting FA Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom.” I remember him promoting Tom Woods and his great book “Meltdown.” I remember him talking about the evils of the Federal Reserve. I remember him allowing Judge Andrew Napolitano to be his primary guest host on his uber-popular television program. I remember him educating his audience about the evils of “progressivism” bashing Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson for their big government visions, in both domestic and foreign policy. I remember him saying America needs to better mind its own business. I remember him being one of the earliest conservative talk hosts to call for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
During one of the breaks during Wednesday’s show, Beck actually reminded all of us that he’d been calling for an end to that war for five years. But that no one had really paid much attention to that.
He’s right.
The liberty movement is probably 99% full of people who had very different views than they do today–before Ron Paul decided to run for president in 2008. I’ve met people who come from more conventionally conservative, or even neoconservative perspectives. I’ve met ex-liberals. I’ve met people who didn’t really care about politics before. I’ve met people who’d said nasty things about Dr. Paul, even vicious things, but have since joined our movement.
But I’ve met very few who were libertarians or constitutionalists before Ron Paul.
Most who came to admire and embrace Ron Paul’s message did so from every position across the political spectrum imaginable. I bet many of them would today be embarrassed about some of things they used to believe, or said, or did. Luckily, they didn’t have a national television or radio program to document these things.
My impression of Beck from Wednesday, was that he is genuinely interested in libertarianism, but does have questions about certain aspects–as do probably most Americans. During the breaks, the banter between Beck, and us as guests, was him just generally reaching out to us, wanting to know if most libertarians would be accepting of him if he joined them in promoting these ideas, or if most libertarians were such purists that there could be no daylight between him and them.
I asked Beck if it was Judge Napolitano or his friend Penn Jillette that had pushed him in a more libertarian direction. He said that he felt had had already generally agreed with the Judge on most things for some time–that it was Jillette that had “opened his mind” more, toward libertarianism.
The cartoon caricature of libertarians is that we are a bunch of hedonists who just want prostitutes and drugs on every corner. Beck addressed this too, but also wanted to move beyond it. He has said repeatedly on the air that he believes it is the libertarian message that might turn this country around. This is certainly what most in the liberty movement believe. Does Glenn Beck agree with all of us on what the liberty message is? Probably not. Do most libertarians themselves completely agree on what the true liberty message is?
Most certainly not.
If someone was trying to pass off big government Bush-style conservatism as libertarianism, I’d be the first to go on the attack. But that’s not what’s going on with Beck. He attacks that era and the Republicans who screwed up the country. He says he was completely wrong in his former support of the Patriot Act (when does a national talk host ever say they are wrong about anything?). He says we can’t police the world. He’s even said that the answer to the same-sex marriage question is to remove the state from the equation altogether.
He says he absolutely loves Rand Paul.
Now, he can possibly say other, less liberty favorable things as well. But if the liberty movement does not have the desire or tolerance to encourage people who are coming our way, who want to come our way, who want to build bridges, we will forever be stunted as a movement. The entire Ron Paul movement was millions of people coming his way. Now that we have this movement, we should hope that millions more come our way. That’s the entire point.
And we should especially want those with a microphone as loud and as far reaching as Glenn Beck’s to come our way.
I think Beck is like many Americans. He’s open to these ideas. He’s learning, and wants to learn more. Perhaps my friend Luke Kenworthy’s Facebook status actually summed it up best:
Glenn Beck is the perfect reflection of the Tea Party. He defines it with, “I’m honestly trying to learn.” Watch him the past 6 years. He has the average American viewpoint, wakes up, discovers some truth and slowly find it in the virtues of preserving liberty. It’s a process in the right direction. Embrace it.
During our appearance, Beck told me, Jacob and Zak that he’d like The Blaze to be a platform to promote libertarian leaders and ideas. He noted, correctly, that none of the other major outlets are covering this stuff adequately, or framing the debate correctly. He’s 100% right.
If Glenn Beck wants to help us, we’d be fools not to let him. If the advancement of liberty is the goal, he could be an important ally. If purity is the litmus test, we will never have any allies–and each of us should resign from this movement effective immediately.