Common Sense - Beck

In his new book, "Glenn Beck's Common Sense, The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine, by Glenn Beck with Joseph Kerry, Mr. Beck chooses as a rallying cry the thoughts of some or our greatest founding fathers and  the best political thinkers of all time -- at least with regard to the appropriate governance of a republic.  If you are alive in the US today the rallying cry that our Government has failed us is an easy criticism to make.  Taking to the streets as interested citizens and banding together for the common good as political advocates for change should resonate with everyone.  Yet Beck doesn't write for everyone though he could have. Take for example his opening line, "I think I know who you are".  He goes on to list about 32 characteristics of person in the general population who is upset and would like to see political change.  I counted about 32 characteristics of this person and found I have only eight. That's about 25% percent.  So Mr. Beck doesn't know me as well as he thinks he does.  That's a problem, but not a big problem, because one my characteristics, one he does not mention, is the ability to hold, as F. Scott Fitzgerald has said, "...two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function."  So I continued to read.  Whereas he did not win me at hello, and he lost me occasionally at places where, for instance, he says in the context that our Social Security and Medicare obligations are upside down that, "...you many want to rethink your current family situation and have more kids."  A stultifying statement if he seriously believes it.  Yet I read on.  His agenda, tired and well trod, includes bashing any claim that climate change is actually occurring , standing up for our right to own handguns, and railing against the cancer, as he call it, of progressivism.  Yet somehow, deep within the bowels of the book, not too deep it's only about a hundred pages long, and I can tell you specifically, "Chapter IV, the Perks and Privileges of the Political Class", he hits pay dirt. He's got about 15 pages of money here, no pun intended. So in a book where he's got me pegged about 25% he's got a chapter with 100% of what I think. In addition he's got it right with regard to our two political parties not giving us sufficient options to truly be governed by ourselves.  His call for change here is highly appropriate.  But since all of these book reviews are more about politics and less about the particular book, I will close with a counter quote to his call to revolution, even a revolution of ideas, "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" as a chilling reminder of what happens when we cannot reach a solution.  The source of this quote is left to the reader.