Dana Milbank: Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America

Joseph Smith, Jr., first leader
of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) 

The White Horse Prophecy is a statement purported to have been made in 1843 by Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, regarding the future of the Latter Day Saints Mormons and the United States of America. The Latter Day Saints, according to the prophecy, would “go to the Rocky Mountains and ... be a great and mighty people,” identified figuratively with the White Horse described in the Revelation of John. The prophecy further predicts that the United States Constitution will one day “hang like a thread” and will be saved “by the efforts of the White Horse.”

“I heard Barack Obama talk about the Constitution and I thought, we are at the point or we are very near the point where our Constitution is hanging by a thread.”

- Glenn Beck

“I think that Glenn Beck is dangerous. The Anti-Defamation League has said basically, what he has done is he has taken ideas that are on the fringes of the Internet. You know, some of it is far right, talk of Nazis and fascists, the notion that FEMA may be operating concentration camps in Wyoming. And you never want to blame a television personality for some crazy thing that one of his followers do. But there are a lot of people out there who said they believe Beck is giving them a nod and a wink, that it is time to bring violence. And Beck will say, he will say -- he will talk about bullets in the brain. He will talk about fascists; he will talk about secession, a lot violent talk -- always qualified like we want a peaceful resolution to this. But he also says things like, “I want you to hear what I am saying in between the sentences. There may be a time when I’m not able to say what I want to, but hear me screaming to you in between the sentences.” So this, of course, is an invitation to the conspiracy theorists who indeed have cited Beck.”

- Dana Milbank, author of Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America

In March 2010, Joanna Brooks, renowned Mormon scholar and writer, wrote “Glenn Beck Doesn't Speak For The Mormons I Know” for the Huffington Post. This morning at 6 a.m., I received an urgent call from a Presbyterian friend in Atlanta, Georgia. She wanted me to know that Glenn Beck threatened progressive evangelical Christian pastor Jim Wallis during his television and radio broadcasts. "He's gone too far," my Presbyterian friend said. “The only thing that's going to come of this is that Christians in the South will dislike Mormonism even more.” Glenn Beck is a Mormon.

Glenn Beck's progressive
"Tree of Revolution" chalk board

So am I. During the nineteenth century, my Mormon ancestors crossed the plains to live their faith without fear of attack from the mobs that had hounded them out of Missouri and Illinois. Watching Glenn Beck threaten to "bring the hammer down" on another person of faith makes my stomach turn. I could cite a host of scriptures from the Bible and the Book of Mormon about how Beck's attack on Jim Wallis is not in keeping with faith-based values. Suffice it to say, Glenn Beck does not speak for the Mormons I know. Most Mormons I know have quite a bit in common with Reverend Jim Wallis, who has dedicated a life and a career to the service of others. By contrast, Glenn Beck has devoted his life and career to expanding the media footprint of Glenn Beck. He's done whatever it's taken: from cavorting with chimpanzees as a "morning zoo" shock jock to threatening to "bring the hammer down" on people of good will like Jim Wallis. Who knows what kind of ugliness Glenn Beck will trot out when he "brings the hammer down" on Jim Wallis next week. As a Mormon woman, I agree with my Presbyterian friend in Atlanta: Beck has gone too far.

“I don’t want to live like this... Republic’s at stake! ... They’re telling you lies... Don’t you want to live in the country that we thought we lived in? [Beck starts to cry.] I have been a lonely voice for a very long time, and no longer! You can do whatever the hell you want with me. You will replace me.”

- Glenn Beck at a show in Norfolk, Virginia

“The hammer is coming, because little do you know, for eight weeks, we've been compiling information on you, your cute little organization, and all the other cute little people that are with you. And when the hammer comes, it's going to be hammering hard and all through the night, over and over!”

- Glenn Beck

In October 2010, David Oshinsky wrote a review of the Dana Milbank book for The Statesman. The book's title, Tears of a Clown, is also its hypothesis. Beck cries a lot in public. He can't help himself. He's just an emotional guy who loves his country too darned much to keep things bottled up inside. He cries about his family, and your family, and the daily perils we all face. He cries one day because America's on the brink of becoming Nazi Germany, the next day because it's morphing into Stalinist Russia, the following day because it's behaving suspiciously like (we've hit rock bottom here) France. "On this sea of tears," says Milbank, "Beck's boat has floated to the top of cable news and talk radio, and put him at the head of a mass anti-government conservative movement."

“I signed up for the elite membership on GlennBeck.com. I think he has a lower bar, and commercially, it’s pure genius. He has found the absolute sweet spot in the market right now.”

- Dana Milbank, author of Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America

“Watching the shtick of the forty-six-year-old recovering alcoholic and cocaine addict, typical Beck viewers probably have no idea he is introducing them to some of the most controversial fields of Mormon theology, such as the White Horse Prophecy, which envisions the Latter-day Saints rescuing the U.S. Constitution.”

- Dana Milbank, author of Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America

In October 2010, Ed Pilkington wrote “Glenn Beck under fire from Dana Milbank for gold-digging” for The Guardian. Glenn Beck, Fox News's Tea Party pundit-in-chief, has made his name by pouring vitriol on progressives and liberals who he accuses of trying to destroy America. Now he's being subjected to a taste of his own medicine. Dana Milbank, a Washington Post columnist, publishes today a 261-page invective against Beck which is just as caustic and sharply-worded as his subject's televised monologues, with the important distinction that Milbank's account is factually accurate. Chapter 7 of Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America, looks at how Beck, who likes to present himself to his viewers as a regular schmo, has amassed an empire with an annual turnover of $32 million. One route to his largesse, Milbank tells us, is his relentless plugging of gold which he tells his listeners and viewers is a sure-fire way for them to protect their savings amid economic collapse. "Conveniently, enough," he writes, "a top sponsor of Beck's radio, TV, and internet ventures is Goldine, a big gold dealer."

“Ultimately, only Beck knows if he actually believes the things he says on air. Given his background as a pro-choice, ponytail-wearing, drug-using DJ on morning radio, it’s tempting to think he invented the conservative persona, and found the ideology, to exploit a market opportunity. Anger and fear always grow in times of economic trouble—and Beck’s arrival at Fox News in early 2009 just after the American economy collapsed could not have been better timed. Yet even if Beck embraced the ideology for entirely commercial reasons, it’s entirely possible that, after playing the role for so long on radio and TV, he has internalized it.”

- Dana Milbank, author of Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America