You've Lost Your Freaking Mind, or; 'Fuck You, Glenn Beck'

My pre-bedtime ritual these days usually involves watching an old Special Comment from MSNBC's 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann'.    Something about prevailing logic soothes my worrisome mind before bed and I end up sleeping like a baby.    Last night I found myself watching a review of 2008's 'favorite' people - the good, the bad and the ugly.    You can't mention influential people in 2008 without first acknowledging the election of the first African-American to the office of President of the United States.    President-Elect Barrack Obama.   Those four words, also highlighted by Olbermann, still manage to send a chill down my spine.    It shouldn't be hard for anyone to stop for a second and recall that moment when we all felt the world was changing for the better.   Not knowing what would come, we all had hope again.   It really didn't matter what obstacles lay before us, because we had faith that we had changed the world for the better and it would continue to improve.   I remember watching President Obama walk to the podium for that acceptance speech, and thinking to myself 'I cannot believe this is actually happening'.     The only time prior to that moment, in my 27 years of life so far, that I had also felt that feeling was on September 11, 2001.   But for entirely different reasons.     One moment was unbridled fear and confusion, the other was energizing and joyous - but both were one of those moments where everything else around you falls away and you are left with the 'here and now'.

 Watching small clips of those moments in 2008 seemed so foreign and strange.    I was overwhelmed with this melancholy nostalgia, this feeling of 'oh, I forgot how amazing that was'.    And that in itself is enough to send me into a bout of immense sadness, followed by great fury.    Let me explain.    In 2008, a huge majority of the American people felt that they had been so poorly mishandled by the Bush Administration, that our country had suffered so greatly, that we ended up backing someone who excited us about being American again.   All the sickening aspects of what meant to be American in the previous 8 years could be washed away by the successful election of this seemingly revolutionary man named Barrack Obama.    I dare any of you out there to watch any of Obama's speeches from 2008 and not feel energized.   He was extraordinary, and I believe this is why he won the election.    The sad realization now is that he is no longer extraordinary.   Surely he is the same man and can tap into what made him so amazing in 2008?   Unfortunately, he is no longer the same man.    Thanks to our friends entrenched in the far-right wing of US politics, Obama has had to endure the ugliest of battles and he has not prevailed.   Obama has endured people claiming he was not born in the United States, people claiming he is a 'secret Muslim', people claiming that he is a closet Socialist, people claiming that he is trying to destroy the Constitution and usher in Sharia Law, and people claiming that he has scarred the great name of this country and done irreparable harm to our future.    These people, quite simply, are liars.    They have been scared for a long time, and now they have a direction to spit their anger.

I had been keeping Fox News' Glenn Beck on my radar for a while - close enough to see the damage he is doing, but not close enough to become enraged by his lies.    However, it struck me today that his historical revisionism is not something to simply laugh at, but instead something that needs to be stopped.    Case in point; his call-to-action to 'Restore Honor'.    Sounds simple enough, but watching these videos of Obama in 2008 made me realize, that's what we were doing.    After 8 years of global embarrassment from the Bush Administration, 8 years of pure hell for anyone who didn't want to attack other countries for the decisions made by a small but dangerous terrorist group, 8 years of shame for being an American, we were finally restoring honor to our country.     Internationally, people were shocked that the US public had pulled through and showed that they weren't a bunch of war-crazy, inbred hicks.   Instead, we were sane again.    People could now remember why we had been so proud to be Americans.    And now, Glenn Beck is fucking with that notion.

It's bad enough to have a large number of Americans listening to the filth and lies that this pudgy-faced Mormon espouses on his national cable program and radio show, but the fact that he has actually managed to erase part of history with his chalkboard and now claim ownership of what we did is unforgivable.    Glenn Beck has made no secret of the fact that he wants to fight the logic and reason and claim those who give up and join the right-wing.   I suggest we take a page out of Beck's book and begin to Restore Honor.    Watch any of those 2008 videos.    Obama's character and drive have been a casualty of these attacks, but we owe it to our past and to who we are as Americans to fight for his right to be remembered as the American that made a difference.   The American that finally pulled us back out of the gutter.   The American that had hope, brought change, and gave us a chance to be red-blooded patriots again.

Game on, Glenn Beck.   We beat your side before and we will do it again.

Peace Out, Freaks.

Cameron.