Beck: US suffers from disease

Glenn Beck will save this country. I don’t know if Beck’s screaming nationalistic rhetoric and frantic arm-waving conjures up the same images for you as it does for me. Still, we all know Beck is but a humble TV personality just trying to “awaken” this country, the land we all love.

He manages to craft a caricature of liberals who demand reform, painting them as hippies who hate their country, and implying that those who truly love our country understand that we’re in some sort of secular stupor. America has “wandered in darkness” Beck tells us, and only he can lead us out.

Luckily, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. All we have to do is watch Beck drop books on his desk and appreciate that this is a man who reads. He reads books!

Seriously though, I fear for my country- seeing Beck mischaracterize the words of our founding fathers and knowing that many of his viewers are buying it. Witnessing the Tea Party pick Sarah Palin, a hockey mom who compared herself to Shakespeare for inadvertently coining the word “refudiate,” as their national mascot. Beck and Palin used to amuse me. Their growing influence over a substantial number of Americans currently worries me.

Beck argues that our country needs some sort of awakening. With this, I agree. However, we certainly don’t need a religious or spiritual awakening. Children aren’t malnourished in this country because of a lack of religion. States’ inability to pay their bills, our growing national debt, falling educational standards and our unsustainable American lifestyle are not problems that will disappear if Americans pray more.

Dare I say this? Sometimes, I worry that if Americans aren’t enlightened to the fact that our national problems aren’t the result of Mexican migrants and Muslim mosques, our political system may soon cause our eventual demise. A national effort, one I suggest should be borne out of our universities, should investigate practical solutions to America’s widespread problems.

Beck argues that our country suffers from “a disease.” He calls that disease “progressivism;” I call it a lack of progressivism. There are inadequacies that need reforming in this country. Palin can “refudiate” that idea till the glaciers start to melt.

Josh Kornfield is a junior majoring in international studies and political science. He may be contacted at jkornfield@themiamihurricane.com.