Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
In the wake of Beckapalooza at the Lincoln Memorial, some pundits are arguing over the allegedly a-political nature of the event. Beck insisted time and time again that the event was not about politics or partisanship, but about instilling "American values." Jonah Goldberg fell for it hook, line and sinker, calling the event "ecumenical" and celebrating its inclusiveness.
He could hardly be further from the truth. The rally was entirely about dividing us and them, the "faithful" from the heathen, the real patriots from those evil commies -- i.e. Democrats -- out to destroy America and God himself. Will Wilkinson punctures all this silliness about the notion that there is an American identity:
There are multiple conceptions of American creed equally consistent with American history. That's why movements to glorify, elevate, and honor a particular conception of American identity based on a particular conception of the American creed necessarily marginalize equally or more historically plausible conceptions and therefore tend to suggest that citizens who favor those conceptions are less or even un-American. It seems pretty clear to me that this is exactly how the conservative politics of American identity works.So, turning back to Jonah's passage, I guess I don't think it's entirely preposterous for Americans to see themselves as a people. But any conception of the American creed sufficiently general to encompass most widespread American conceptions of individual freedom, equality, tolerance and so on is going to be so general that it will do very little to distinguish American identity from, say, Canadian identity. And that's clearly not what Glenn Beck or the staff of National Review have in mind when they talk about American values, promote a conception of American identity, or encourage Americans to see themselves as a people. (I'm not sure if they'd consider my nominalist view of the American people-that the American people is the set of Americans-better or worse than that.)
The conservative conception of American identity is so selective and so specific that it tends to suggest to its adherents that many (maybe even most!) Americans aren't real Americans, or are Americans who betray real American ideals. Birther and Muslim Obama memes crudely reify the logical upshot of the right's fixation on its favored version of American identity. Most conservatives don't need to believe that Obama is literally an un-American non-Christian. They're just content to nod along with Glenn Beck when he implies, or outright asserts, that a guy who adheres to a mundane version of liberal politics slightly to the right of the typical "This American Life" fan is hell-bent on destroying the special Americaness of America.
Spot on. Beck's "turn back to God" rally was inclusive in precisely the same sense that an athlete claiming that they won because of God is being humble. The athlete thinks he's being humble by giving the credit to God, but in fact he is doing the exact opposite -- claiming to be so special that God chose him to win and the other guy to lose. That is the same dynamic at work with Beckapalooza -- it claims to be inclusive and "American" rather than being partisan, but it is in fact hyper-partisan because it sought to divide real Americans (i.e. those who agree with Beck and Palin) from everyone else.
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Jon Stewart has covered the "real America" myth a lot.
There's this: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-october-20-2008/quiz--are-you-a-real-american-
And this line: Conservatives love America, they just hate half the people living in it.
Posted by: Brandon | September 8, 2010 10:09 AM
yes, this too. I was blogging through the event but I basically threw up my hands in surrender; the chasm fixed between Beck and King is simply too vast for mortal minds. i could write a book and still never be done.
Posted by: andrew | September 8, 2010 10:10 AM
I really want to this press conference after an NFL game:
I was doing great until Jesus made me fumble!
Posted by: Personal Failure | September 8, 2010 10:35 AM
It would be difficult to beat what an eighty something year old grandmother had to say on her blog about the event.
"As I see it dear, if more than a hundred thousand dead civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan can be dismissed, so can slightly less than a hundred thousand peckerwoods at a Beck rally.
If the civil rights of millions of gay and lesbian Americans are not important, then neither are the pathetic rants of almost a hundred thousand Palin addicts.
If millions of children without healthcare are inconsequential then why should I give a rat’s ass about a hundred thousand shitheads who actually think Beck and Palin have something worthwhile to say?
As long as millions of American Muslims don’t have religious freedom, a hundred thousand Tea Party yahoos shouldn’t be allowed to have cable television. It only seems fair…"
http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/100-grand-bore/
Posted by: GordonOKC | September 8, 2010 10:40 AM
and i concede to the grandma ...
Posted by: andrew | September 8, 2010 11:13 AM
I think they hate closer to 90% of the people living here, except they don't see it that way because half the population (women) aren't really people to them in the first place.
Posted by: catgirl | September 8, 2010 11:19 AM
catgirl: For that matter, we know the constitutional originalists among them would be perfectly happy to count black Americans as only 3/5 of a person each....
And the Teabagger movement and its apologists (like Jonah the Wail) are "apolitical" only for a definition that really means "non-partisan"--as we've seen, they're perfectly willing to throw under the bus any GOP candidate who has the slightest bit of moderation to him.
Posted by: Freemage | September 8, 2010 11:30 AM
What exactly is wrong about faith, hope and charity? Faith in America's greatness. Hope for a more prosperous future. And the charity to make that happen one day at a time by asking each citizen to rise to the task instead of using the government to coerce them.
Posted by: Canny | September 8, 2010 11:35 AM
Yeah, there was an article in Sunday's NYT that said something like, "An event that supposed to unite everyone immediately turned divisive", and then from the next sentence I discovered they were talking about the Beck rally. Srsly?!?!? Anybody believed that Beck could be involved in something that would not be divisive? Really?
@Canny: Who said anything about hope and charity? Those things are great. And they don't require faith.
Posted by: James Sweet | September 8, 2010 12:07 PM
I strongly disagree with Will Wilkinson to the point I question his thinking skills.
There is a monolithic creed we can all agree is meaningful. For example, nearly all of us would argue we individually enjoy 'freedom of conscience' as the founders promoted, which they are articulated in the Constitution as an individual religious freedom right. We all promote the exercise of speech, assembly, and petition.
What we instead get from conservatives is a misrepresentation of this creed when they drill down in order to promote political objectives that violate this creed and its attendant principles while dishonestly claiming they support such principles when they clearly do not do so in a way that allows equal protection, another principle accepted by conservatives and the rest of us via the assertion found in the Declaration of Independence.
If Mr. Wilkinson wants to argue we've never had a consistent creed, then he should do so by noting that a group has always existed with ideological bloodlines tying to Beck and his ilk; this group does covertly promote a creed outside the bounds of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence while dishonestly claiming they are the primary protectors of this creed instead of their actually being its sole internal enemy.
Posted by: Michael Heath | September 8, 2010 12:18 PM
The one truly great outcome from Beckapalooza and similar events is that is makes my life easier.
Regardless of your politics or your religion - if you are moderate, Beck, Palin and their ilk should disgust you. If you call yourself moderate, and they do not disgust you, then you are delusional.
It makes my job a whole lot easier separating the possibles from the impossibles. Also - I am no longer a strange outlier who simply "hates god" - I am an honest broker who also recognizes that "these guys are fucking idiots who are destroying our country".
Posted by: TonyC | September 8, 2010 12:25 PM
I'm with Andrew: grandma wins the Internet for at least today.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | September 8, 2010 12:52 PM
Posted by: Hume's Ghost | September 8, 2010 12:57 PM
James Sweet @9:
"Faith, hope and charity" is a Beck meme (borrowed from 1 Corinthians 13) about... something. That shows that George Washington was practically a demigod and hated liberals, and America was the best until Woodrow Wilson / Tides Foundation / Diego Rivera / George Soros began their conspiracy to destroy America.
At least I think. Point is, that's what Beck was ostensibly doing with this rally, was giving out awards to (right wing compliant) people who apparently exhibited those virtues.
It's *incredibly* disingenuous to suggest that this was just a nice fluffy Americana awards ceremony, though. But Canny was the one who said that Muslims are inherently violent but any violent Christians weren't "real" Christians, so...
Posted by: Kyorosuke | September 8, 2010 1:04 PM
When Beck talks about the people I am strangly reminded about how Hitler talked about the Volk.
Posted by: Paen | September 8, 2010 3:18 PM
it will do very little to distinguish American identity from, say, Canadian identity.
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I dunno - it's pretty easy from here to tell an American from a Canadian. They aren't nearly so polite eh.
Posted by: Canadian Curmudgeon | September 8, 2010 5:48 PM
Yes, but does this creed distinguish Americans from others? After all, the language 'freedom of conscience' appears in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the UDHR includes 'freedom of thought, conscience and religion'.
Posted by: DaveL | September 8, 2010 6:07 PM
DaveL:
I didn't appreciate the utility of having to reduce the American creed to something less merely because those values are shared by other countries who embrace enlightenment values. That was part of the reason I found Mr. Wilkinson's argument less than compelling and somewhat defective. The creed and principles are what they are, either we accept and promote them or we do not, sharing them shouldn't force us to reduce what we celebrate or rename what was a founding set of principles.
We currently have a group, conservatives, who claims fealty far more than any other to this creed while simultaneously promoting policies that violate the underlying principles. That's the story; not that other similar creeds exist.
I struggled to reconcile Wilkinson's point to Ed's point, which I found to be some of Ed's best work:
Shame on me for going after Wilkinson when such stellar work should have been the feature point to comment about.
Posted by: Michael Heath | September 8, 2010 10:18 PM
@8: "Faith in America's greatness."
Wait a minute, I thought the theme of the rally was "restoring America's honor?" How can a country be "great" and not possess "honor" at the same time?
Posted by: daniel rotter | September 8, 2010 11:04 PM
@ 19 daniel
How can a country be "great" and not possess "honor" at the same time?
The same way an individual, such as an athlete, can be great, yet without honour. On the other hand, to suggest that a non sentient entity such as a country could have honour is a serious case of anthropomorphizing.
Posted by: Canadian Curmudgeon | September 9, 2010 11:45 AM