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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Glenn Beck drops conservatism, picks up libertarianism
The Miami Herald reported Monday that Glenn Beck is "not a conservative anymore."
Glenn Beck goes on the air with Fox News for the first time Monday afternoon, and he's got a surprise for you: He's not a conservative anymore.
"Every day that goes by, I'm more and more libertarian,'' says Beck, whose new show (titled, coincidentally, Glenn Beck) will air from 5 to 6 p.m. weekdays. 'I've always been a conservative. But every day I find myself believing more and more in states' rights, individual rights -- let people alone, get the government out of everybody's lives, let everybody rule themselves."
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on January 20, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
I watched Glenn Beck's CNN show regularly, especially during the September/October months of the financial crisis, he was pretty fantastic. He may be a capitalist conservative who leans libertarian (perhaps even increasingly more), but his fundamental principles are conservative. I'm not discouraging his tendencies, simply pointing out the apparent.
Incidentally, did he have Peter Schiff on his first episode on Fox News yesterday? Or did Schiff get bumped for the wives of Ramos and Campean?
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2009-01-20 3:03:34 PM
I think he had Palin on, but I didn't see the show. I learned in Schiff's podcast that he is scheduled to be on. I just can't remember when.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-01-20 3:10:20 PM
He and Penn Jillette could get a show and it'd be the best thing on TV.
Posted by: dan | 2009-01-20 3:11:06 PM
My impression is that Beck grew up in a family that were Democrat supporters and that he found his party was being hijacked by the loony left.
He is definitely not a statist.
Ever since FDR, the American political culture has been drawn in by the ‘chicken in every pot' argument that transformed the definition of the American Dream from equal opportunity to equal outcome.
The housing bubble and the debt instruments (derivatives) that caused the credit crunch are an attempt to fulfill the equal outcome dream of home ownership.
The chickens have come home to roost.
My sense is that Beck fights this sense of entitlement and believes every individual is responsible for his own outcomes because in America, it is still possible.
Posted by: set you free | 2009-01-20 3:12:25 PM
No surprise here. Many Libertarians are ex conservatives. Why? Because they've seen their
traditional party sliding so far to the left as to be unrecognizable.
Posted by: jc | 2009-01-21 4:43:54 AM
I think he Beck is great and is searching. I started leaving conservatism, thinking that classical liberalism and libertarianism equate. When I found most libertarians differ little from anarcho-capitalists and repeat the same chants as the Islamist anti-war crowd, I decided I was a conservative after all.
Call me a Capitalist Conservative.
Posted by: Faramir | 2009-01-21 3:50:48 PM
Capitalist conservative -- solid in my books.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2009-01-21 4:03:14 PM
Well we are essentially anarch-capitalists, but definatly not Islamofascists. Libertarians are for freedom, in all aspects of our lives.
Posted by: Ted | 2009-01-29 2:58:11 PM
Libertarians are conservative, politically.
Posted by: RW | 2009-02-06 5:33:04 PM
The opposite of Libertarian is Totalitarian, and they are usually socialist.
Posted by: RW | 2009-02-06 5:34:08 PM
"He and Penn Jillette could get a show and it'd be the best thing on TV."
They do have great chemistry whenever they share the screen. There's something about that Mormon/heathen dynamic which just works.
Here's Glenn & Penn (hey, we've already got them a name) discussing libertarianism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcniH1nE900
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N9v21mdfiE
PJ: "A clown and a Mormon... we both wear funny underwear -- for different reasons"
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2009-02-06 9:02:24 PM
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