An Interview with Glenn Beck
EC: It seems that a central point throughout the book is we should start over again. Am I correct? Also, why should we start over and how can we start over?
GB: Without giving too much away, that quote has dual meaning in the book. I don’t personally think we need to start over, I just think we’ve forgotten who it is we really are. We’ve been sold a bill of goods by big government progressives, and they’ve neatly packaged it and delivered it to us in dribs and drabs over the years: a little social security here, Medicare there, Medicaid. We’ve lost ourselves. We have to remember who we are – the nation that changed the world, for the better. What will the world do without the shining city on the hill? Where will freedom seekers run to if America is just like every other bloated government in the world? And Americans already know how to start over. It’s in our DNA. We only need to wake up out of our slumber and realize that there are those in power who are trying to transform America into something it wasn’t designed to be.
EC: Why did you use this quote:“Slavery and tyranny have been the rule for thousands of years but freedom is the short lived exception.”
GB: That’s from Professor Thomas Sowell, one of the smartest conservative thinkers out there. This quote has always resonated with me because it underscores how so many people have such a short term view of history. People take freedom for granted. We’ve always had it in our lifetime, so it’s understandable for that to happen. But when you zoom out of your day to day life and put what our Founders accomplished in context with the history of the world, it becomes clear that what we have is a gift from above. No other time period in history had civilizations with this much freedom — it was always riddled with tyrants, oppressive kings and regimes. Look around the world today even and you’ll see dictators and oppressive governments. We have to understand that what we have is the greatest miracle this planet has ever seen, and it can and will go away if we allow it to.
EC: In what way do you consider the system broken?
GB: Oh boy, where do I start? There are so many problems, but I’ll start by saying just look at how twisted the meaning of “serving” the public has become. George Washington was practically begged to stay on a third term as president – he turned it down. Founders and many early politicians gave up lucrative careers to spend time serving. It actually was a sacrifice to do so. Now? Look at the type of person who is attracted to office. Someone who knows they can accumulate power, makes a ton of money, and is set for life with incredible benefits and speaking fees and so on. How is that serving? Regular Joes aren’t running for office anymore – we’re mostly getting the dirt bags. On both sides of the aisle, too – how else can you explain the mess we’ve gotten into, which never seems to get better no matter which side is in power? If you read the Carroll Quigley quote [“The two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy…”] in the book, you’ll understand why that is.
EC: You made a statement that Lincoln would not have been able to get elected today. “It costs a billion dollars to run for president these days. Abraham Lincoln would never have lasted past the Iowa caucuses,” and there was a negative reaction to politicians. Can you please explain?
GB: First of all, his nickname was “honest” Abe. Talk about an outcast. But think of the machine that’s in place right now. You either align with it and get behind the power, or you are done. The good news on that front is we are seeing a lot of tea party candidates take on GOP establishment candidates and win. That’s part of the hope and optimism.
EC: Do you want to explain about the “Overton Window” — for example your analogy to the airline security checks?
GB: The Overton Window is basically a way to visualize what citizens consider politically acceptable moves over time. A variety of things can move it — arguments, events, even lies can move it. If you operate outside the window you risk a backlash, called Overton’s revenge. One of the ways those with an agenda get the Overton Window to move rapidly is by using a crisis to make the argument for more intervention or more control, that under normal circumstances people would not accept. Before 9-11 we would never have accepted having to take our shoes off and wait in line for extra hours. The politician that brought that policy about, before 9-11, would be trashed. But, in light of what happened, the Overton Window was moved and here we are, getting wanded every time we fly.
EC: Do you think the real leaders are business and the media?
GB: I think real leaders are all among us – teachers, moms, dads, baseball coaches, mechanics, farmers, you name it. All you need to be a great leader is the courage of your convictions and a little common sense. This notion that you have to be rich, have a Harvard education and all of the world capitols memorized is nonsense.
EC: Do you think your scenario regarding the connection between the terrorists and the Patriot movement is plausible: “If they’re really trying to bring this war back home ["Islamo-Fascists"] — they need a boogeyman right here on its soil, and they need to connect him to past events and to the Patriot movement so they can demonize the resistance.”
GB: I think that people have to always remain vigilant as to how they could be used by others. Everyone seems to have an agenda and you don’t want to be a bit player in someone else’s. In terms of the Patriot movement, we’ve already heard from Missouri that those who go to these kinds of rallies might be extremists. Is it far-fetched to think that someone with ulterior motives might one day use the tea party and the media’s negative view of them to their advantage? No, I don’t think it is.
EC: Is your goal to get Americans to think and question more — awakening them?
GB: Absolutely. We’ve gotten lazy, but we are being tested — I know many of my listeners and viewers know that progressives are trying to radically change the country, but I also want them to understand that it is their responsibility to stop this change. If they want to see America restored, then it’s time to step up to the plate. No one is going to do it for you.
EC: Are you planning on writing a sequel since you left the ending somewhat open ended?
GB: I’d love to keep writing books; hopefully I can get some more out before conservative and libertarian views are deemed “hate speech” by the government. But quite honestly I hope we get on a path towards restoration, so I can start writing about the things I truly love: donuts, cake, ice cream, cookies. You know, the stuff that used to be important in our lives, and I hope one day truly are again.
Thinking of the names Glenn Beck gets called by the moonbats leads me to wonder why it seems to be the case that its deemed RACIST to call a RACIST a RACIST only when the RACIST in question is BLACK??
Its not his pigmentation its his POLICIES
Its not because he is Black its because he is RED.
Its not that he is the “POST” Racial its that he is the “MOST” Racial.
The liberals cannot face having their own words and ideas repeated to them where everyone else can hear them and check them out for themselves…the public at large is duped on a daily basis by the Adm and followers.
Beck always tell you to “check it out for yourself”…..and the left if LIVID!!!!
GO BECK!!!
When GB uses Thomas Sowell as one of Conservatives smartest thinkers you know he is on the right track. Other than GB drives me crazy when I listen to him for any length of time his book sounds like it should be worth the time.
Concerning Thomas Sowell, AMEN to that brother. The same goes for Walter Williams, Clarence Thomas and Allen Keyes. Anyone of them would be better than what we had last time to pick from and maybe even going all the way to George Bush Sr.
The Overton Window is AMAZING. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ.
There are no words to describe how great this story is.
YOU REALLY MUST READ. I DID.
I like to remind everyone that I bought the book on line and in two days I got it. Except it was not the hard cover book it was the audio tape. I listened to the whole book over a 24 hour period.
You usually think you do not have time for every new book that comes out but the fastest way to cover it is to listen to it.
I did the same thing with GOING ROGUE by Sarah Palin, She read it herself while the OVERTON WINDOW was read by an actor.
Happy Listening.
I started listening Glenn Beck when he was on CNN and have been a fan ever since. I know that what he states is absolutely the truth about progressives and their tactics and goals.
I was a Woodstock child, a Kent State victim, an advocate for honest government, and a political hopeful. After my home was torched by the liberal encombant government in a town I lived in,(many now in jail), I realized that the fight for our liberty is real.
Progressives have taken over many small cities and towns and have literally bankrupted the local governments, destroyed small businesses, and overtaxed the working citizen. When I listen to Mr. Beck I am encouraged that the restoration of America can be achieved. When the majority of citizens start voting with their brains and truthful information rather than voting for a party line, or treating their vote like they were answering a multiple choice question and taking a wild guess as to the unknown name on the ballot, then liberty will be restored for our children.
I’ve lost property, money, and at times hope fighting to keep and restore the freedoms my granparents, my parents and I grew up with in order to ensure that future generations will know liberty rather than reading a banned book that explains what “liberty and freedom for all” was all about.
I feel your pain.
It seems to me that the lefties are dedicated to kick me out of my house by raising taxes.
I paid my home. But they raise the taxes every year.
They want to create a people of desperate beggars, dependent from the government.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I, too, started watching Beck when he was with CNN and haven’t stopped, although the present state of our country under our feckless President, Obama, scares the heck out of me. I’ve voted in elections for over 50 years and have never actually feared for our country, that is until now!! I am astonished at how uninformed i have been about our political history, and Beck does a great job of “teaching” it. Too bad the people who really need to listen to it are still watching the cretins on the lame stream media. I pray this country can survive 4 years of Obama and his Marxist agenda. Please be sure to vote in 2010 and 2012 to rid this country of these people, including Obama, who would turn America into a 3rd World Country!!
Excellent interview !
Thank you.
Excellent point: violence would only help the totalitarian subversives.
“The only thing it does is cause government to say “see, those crazy Christians or those crazy Muslims need to be stopped” and when government steps in, it only gets worse.”
I couldn’t help noticing Glen Beck’s religious relativism. He morally equates Christianity with Islam, even though the former is a faith-based religion while the latter is the only religion of submission in the world and the only religion that forbids the freedom of conscience in stark contrast to faith-based religions, and even though the latter is also more than it is anything else a radical totalitarian ideology that seeks world domination. Hence, while Christianity is a faith-based religion, Islam in essence is a radical theological and totalitarian political ideology that seeks world domination, but you would never know it if you just listened to Glen Beck.
Clearly you have never listened to Beck. He clearly understands the difference. Try actually listening to him before passing judgement.
You may have HEARD Glenn Beck, but it’s obvious you’ve never LISTENED to Glenn Beck.
Go back and do your homework before spouting false indignations.
Just finished reading GB’s “thriller”, and was not impressed. I am very conservative, and felt that GB was preaching
to the choir, in my case. Perhaps it has to do with my age, 79. I kept waiting for something to happen in the book and
read 186 pages before anything happened. Perhaps this book would be entertaining to the young, who are still being brainwashed by our school system, and could help them find their way. I found the “Fountainhead” much more to my liking. Sorry Glen.
As a big Glenn Beck fan, I too was disappointed with the Overton Window. It kind of fell flat.
Interesting interview Elise. Very insightful interview with Glenn Beck. Will definitely pickup a copy to read.
I hear the left condemn Glenn, but they really never listen to him. I read his book and it’s interesting and I hope it’s just a work of fiction. However, he has pages and pages of references to what is being said and what is being done by this administration (regime).
He is the one who said he didn’t like the video and wondered if there was more to it. That we shouldn’t jump too hastily until we hear it all, or the context of it. However, no one in the msm brings that up. They just say the wh is afraid of Glenn Beck. Man just think of the power he wields! I pray for his safety every day.
GB like the rest of high profile talk show hosts, wether conservative or liberal is full of sh… they are out there to make money and they don’t give a f…how. GB makes about 8 millon $$ a yera and here he says the unemployment is extended for two years. so let’s have all hard working americans who are strugling to feed their families on $300.00 a week strave to deaht and cut their benefits!!! while GB make 8 millon $$ a year!! that is why he is doosh.. and he is all talks
To Miriam Rove – I once heard someone say, the difference between a Millionaire and the average person is how they spend their time. Since we all have twenty-four hours in the day, we all have the potential to be millionaires, provided we’re willing to spend our time wisely. What could be more fair? Earning money is not evil. Lusting after the money others earn and taking it from them is. By-the-way, two years of unemployment benefits is not about jobs, it’s about welfare. The issue is not about how much money GB earns, it’s more about the amount our government takes from us that only earn $300 a week. Beck is giving us all the greatest gift in the world – education, and it’s costing us nothing, except the time we spend learning from him. Beck’s not giving us a fish; he’s teaching us to be Fishermen. So, rather than condemn him, you should thank him for the “doosh” he is…. whatever that might be.
Miriam, your judgement is poor, to say the least. GB is passionate about this country, and our personal freedom. If you only ‘actually’ listened to him instead of just repeating the liberal line you get fed from your boy Soros.
to: NE frog and trigeek:
first of all I am not a liberla and you are just making an assumption. second off all, one can say soros is doing a service to the country as well. anf thirdly, all governments since I been here are full of it…. so what do you suggest? give then unemplyment for 6 month and then send off to the streets? is this American?
Miriam,
I didn’t cal you a liberal, I said you were repeating a liberal line. Now, name one thing positive about George Soros. You do know how he made his moeny don’t you? Everything he is funding are projects designed to destroy our freedom and liberty.
I’M JUST THANKFUL MIRIAM IS IN THE MINORITY AT LEAST SHE APPEARS TO BE HERE. GOD HELP US IF SHE ISN’T. WHOEVER THOUGHT AMERICA WOULD TURN DOWN THIS PATH TO EXTINCTION EVEN 3 YEARS AGO?
For all you americans, you are very very lucky to have FOX, Glenn B and others like them. At least americans have left wing media and right wring media to choose from. Many other countries do not have that choice.
Canada doesn’t have any right wing media, all are left wing media and these media work solely for the liberal party of canada and no one else. the public have to rely on the net, blogs for news. There are only a handful of conservative radio show hosts who are unfortunately not heard across the board. Very sad indeed, that the national media that is suppose to report manipulates the news, lies, even sometimes bars the PM from being seen across Canada.
I have to thank Glenn, FOX and others like them for their exstensive brow-beating work they do to bring prper reporting to the public.
Glenn B, is informative, he lets the videos, tapes, articles speak for itself. The blackboard with names, faces and the things which is going on in the W H, should shock you also infuriate you that the mainstream media refuse to unveil to you.
I am canadian and I know what I am talking about. Glenn B. has become many canadians’ favourite; they find him bold, straight to the point no nonesense guy, a man who deeply loves his country USA. Thanks Glenn, you make my day our day helpful, we look forward to seeing you every day. DON’T STOP.
FOX MEDIA has become my media, the canadian liberal useless good for nothing pathetic garbage media can all go where sun don’t shine.