Glenn Beck review

Glenn Beck: you either love him or you hate him. Whether you are a conservative or a liberal, you must admit that Beck has been a powerful driving force in the country, cheering on the grassroots T.E.A. Party organizations, as well as, arguably, playing a huge role in the decrease in popularity of President Barack Obama. Beck's popularity has soared within the past two years, and he can now be considered a contemporary of conservative talk show commentator Rush Limbaugh. Starting out on radio, Beck secured a television show with CNN before moving to Fox News over a year ago.

With his highly conservative views, it had seemed an odd choice for CNN to host a show like Beck's. However, after his move to Fox, Beck started to become much more open and flamboyant about his political views. It is assumed that CNN would not allow him to be as open, but with Fox News Channel, he has let loose. His ratings, along with that of Fox News, have consistently stayed much higher than their competitors. According to the website, tvbythenumbers.com, Glenn Beck's show was the top rated cable news show in the 5pm slot with ratings of 2,623,000 viewers. In comparison, CNN's competing show, "Situation Room," was in second place with 604,000 viewers.

Beck comes from a troubled background, and he makes it no secret that he is a recovering alcoholic. Losing his family to what is presumed to be his alcoholism, Beck decided to turn his life around by remaining sober for many years. He moved across the country for his stints in radio. Since his recovery from alcoholism, he has remarried and joined the Mormon faith. His outspoken views have given him popularity from doing radio at a local station to broadcasting across the world on satellite radio and on television.

With his liberation philosophy in mind, Beck set out to write a book that challenges programs and ideologies of, not only the current presidential administration, but the past ones of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and George Bush, just to name a few. He titled his book Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government. On his front cover, he poses in a uniform reminiscent of a Russian officer from the KGB. The R in the word "Arguing" is backwards as a symbol of the Russian language. Beck is emphatically trying to point similarities between the communist society of Russia with that of the current atmosphere of the United States. In his book, he points out many of the ways in which he feels our country is plunging deeper and deeper into socialism.

In the book, Beck systematically goes through an area of current concern, such as the economy, health care, or housing. His book is written in a conversational style that engages the reader. Each page is very colorful with boxes attached to paragraphs titled "A.D.D. Moments" as well as quote boxes labeled with "Celebrity Guest Idieeot" where he points out what he believes to be ignorant quotes by celebrities, such as Susan Sarandon or Rob Reiner, about politics or society in general. He writes with great sarcastic humor, poking fun at the weight of Oprah Winfrey and Michael Moore or at the speech impediment of Barney Frank with illustrations of Frank's face and spit flying out of his mouth.

Glenn includes a large reference section in the back of the book to allow readers to see for themselves where he is getting his facts from. He made use of statistics as well as American history to point out how he believes his philosophy of life would work better for the U.S. government than its current operations. He believes, for instance, there should not be universal health care, and the taxpayers should not be responsible for taking care of those who do not want health insurance or cannot afford it. He also points to the fact that the government has been unable to run anything correctly, pointing to examples of AmTrak, the postal service, and the social security system, which is going bankrupt.

As a libertarian, Beck does not see how the government should be able to tell us what we should be doing and who we should be giving our money to. He believes that the government should take a hands off approach to people's lives by not passing all kinds of legislations for people to live by or live for. The main objective of his book is that people need to take care of themselves more and not be told how to live their life by the government. He points to the various countries that sustain a socialist philosophy and how they fall greatly below the scale in class structure. Beck believes that Americans should not rely on the government for al their needs but should be self-sufficient. He believes the less government has to do with our personal lives, the better. He gives the example of gun ownership. More gun laws mean less people with guns, which mean more crime. Responsible people who can easily obtain guns scare potential criminals away from bothering them.

The book is written in an unusual style. It is certainly not a straight-laced book with a boring view of politics. Glenn Beck pokes fun at both sides of the aisle, whether it be through the disaster of health care by the Democrats or the large bailouts opted for by the Bush administration. Many people these days are concerned with political correctness and not offending anybody. Glenn Beck offends all people equally, and he does not care. On the back cover of his book, there is a picture of his face with a tear running down his cheek. In the corners around his face are the comments by famous people bashing Beck for his views. As stated above, he could really care less.

This book is geared to both a conservative and a liberal audience. Conservatives will love it for its bold attitude about politics and life in general. I believe that one of Beck's goals is to convince liberals that they have a narrow minded view of thinking, therefore, they should read his book and the facts he points to. It's difficult to tell whether his goals will be accomplished, but with the current outlook of the country, it seems like he is changing the minds of some people.