Apology not really accepted.
Even
though there was a hint of impishness in his act, a kind of twinkle in
his eye, like we were meant to understand this was but a huckster at
work, the damage left behind in the wake of the performance of Mr. Beck
has been enormous and long lasting.
He and Rush Limbaugh are not merely the parents of the dumbing
down of America, but of everything this spawned. Based on an ideology
disassociated from reality, governing has become an intractable
disaster, as a a long line of fools masquerading as political leaders
have drawn an endless series of irrational and ludicrous lines in the
sand.
If Mr. Beck intended us to consider him nothing more than a
combination of Elmer Gantry and John Nash, with his chalkboard and
shenanigans, far too few got the joke. From the Tea Party to the latest
rants of Mike Huckabee, extreme histrionics has become a very marketable
commodity. As Mr. Beck taught us all too well, being extremely loud and
more than a little dangerous, pay$.
Is Mr. Beck experiencing a true
awakening or is this but the latest iteration of his act? Has he
discovered that in 2014 he has to re-brand himself to remain viable? We
may never know what is going on inside his head, but what even a
charlatan like Mr. Beck cannot do is put the genie back in the bottle.
Too little, too late.
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