Glenn Beck: I Used to Be a Social Liberal Before I Discovered Alcoholics Anonymous and Sobered Up

Glenn Beck used to be a social liberal before he discovered Alcoholics Anonymous and then consequently sobered up. This admission-coming straight from the man's lips on his Friday TV show on FNC during a special entitled "Who Are You?"-may not be a surprise to some who know Beck's backstory, but it certainly reinforces the conventional wisdom that liberalism breeds weakness and is oftentimes an impediment to personal self-improvement. His declaration came in the context of "knowing yourself" politically and ideologically, the theme of Friday's Glenn Beck show special on FNC. Stating that his recovery from alcoholism came only after he truly discovered who he was-libertarian conservative-Beck also went on to assert that he later realized he was only a liberal because he didn't want to make tough choices or be consistent.

For the few of you not familiar with Beck's backstory, let me bring you up to speed in a pithy primer, so you may understand the significance of his statement all the better. Beck was born into a family with a history of substance abuse and suicide. His mom drowned in Puget Sound in Washington State when Beck was a mere 15 years old, though a Coast Guard report speculated it was suicide. She was also an alcoholic-as Beck would later become-and Beck's stepbrother was also a suicide. These suicides contributed-if were not the actual catalysts-for Beck's hitting the bottle.

Beck's comments are very interesting and stimulating because they almost insinuate, at least suggest, that some people are liberals not because they truly, honestly want to be liberals (as in his case) or believe in that ideology's tenets (big government, wealth redistribution, abortion, anti-war to the point of giving aid and comfort to the enemy, open borders, etc.). Instead, Beck's comments basically indicate-at least based on his own personal experience with addiction problems-that some liberals just happen to think of themselves as liberals simply because they don't want to make the tough choices necessary in life, or be consistent enough in their intellectual honesty to see what a sham liberalism is! Building on that concept, it would also seem that having a debilitating problem like alcoholism would make one likelier to continue being a liberal, if only because alcoholism prevents the clear-cut thinking necessary to really make tough choices about what's right and wrong.

In example, let's look at one inarguably blatant problem in the US right now that both liberals and conservatives will agree is a problem. Number one: increasing government involvement and influence as in everything from driving up the deficits to health care "reform." If you're the liberals like Obama and company who are fanatically insisting on passing this train wreck of liberal idealism called Obamacare-in direct defiance of popular, American, public opinion-you're clearly refusing to make tough choices, choices about whether saddling future generations with crushing debt is justifiable, or choices about whether alienating the vast majority of the country is really worth it.

Clearly, with their sights set on the nuclear option, Obama and company aren't making the tough decisions necessary. Now, it's not that they're necessarily alcoholic (though, perhaps, Obama and company's sobriety should increasingly be questioned when their destruction in the fall midterms is all but assured due to their insistence on Obamacare, yet their response to that is to redouble their efforts to get it passed). But they surely are exhibiting the same factors Beck spoke of that he noted in his fight to recovery, namely the refusal-or is it all-out failure?-to make the tough decisions and be consistent in that application. So, again, there's an indelible, constant association between liberalism and failing or refusing to make tough decisions properly in both Beck's example and mine. And I think this makes sense to everyone who's devoted some time to studying the mentality of liberalism.

The backdrop for Beck's declaration on his show was a little something called The Nolan Chart Quiz, which sets out basic, declarative tenets of libertarians versus liberals and conservatives. The purpose of such a chart/quiz was to engage his audience into knowing who they are politically, something that-if you believe Beck-was the catalyst for him both quitting alcoholism as well as liberalism.

To send Marc questions, praise or criticism, you can email him at marc_schenker@telus.net

More Reading: JD Hayworth Publicly Throws Obama Birthers under the Bus, Sarah Palin on Obama Summit: Obama Frustrated Americans, Commie Van Jones Invited by Gore Green Group to speak to captive Audience of School Kids

Sources:

Glenn Beck, Wikipedia

philo, Seven Tenets of Liberalism, philofalexandria.wordpress.com

Erica Werner, Obama to GOP on health care: "Let's get this done!", AP

Health Care Reform, RasmussenReports

Nolan Chart, Wikipedia