Glenn Beck's Rally: The Big Bust on the Mall
Bill Press

After months of huffing and puffing on Fox News, Glenn Beck did succeed in pulling a big crowd out to the Lincoln Memorial. But, once they got there, nothing happened.

Beck's so-called "Restoring Honor Rally" will not be remembered 200 years from now, as he predicted. Nor, as his promos trumpeted, will it go down with the Wright Brothers flight or the moon landing as one of those events that changed the course of history.

Take it from me. I was in that crowd, somewhere between the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. What took place was a strange combination of political rally and religious revival. Indeed, I felt like I was in the middle of an old-fashioned camp meeting, surrounded by a typical camp-meeting crowd: old, white, and angry. There were more blacks on the platform than there were in the audience.

As instructed, most people left their signs at home. But there was no doubting their politics. They waved "Don't Tread on Me" flags. Many wore T-shirts identifying them as members of a particular Tea Party chapter: Richmond, Leesburg, Colorado Springs. They handed out anti-Obama literature and sold buttons complaining, "Obama spoke. Now I'm Broke."

No matter how many times Beck denies it, this was first and foremost a political rally. You can't have Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin as featured speakers and say it's nonpolitical. You can't bash Barack Obama three hours a day on the radio and one hour a day on national television, five days a week, month in and month out, and then suddenly declare yourself nonpartisan. Sarah Palin can't proclaim that this country doesn't need transforming, it needs reforming -- and not pretend she's talking about President Obama.

What surprised me most was not the politics, but the Christian religious fervor. Every speaker mentioned God. Alveda King, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, declared: "This is the day that the Lord has made." Two black ministers read from the Bible. One of them announced: "Black and white, rich and poor, we are all Americans gathered together today in the name of Christ." And, trying to raise the event to a higher plane, even Mormon Glenn Beck insisted: "This day has nothing to do with politics -- and everything to do with God!"

But, on Aug. 28, even God was forced to take a backseat -- to Glenn Beck himself. Prior to the event, Beck had released a promotional video putting himself in a pantheon of American heroes that included Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks. But he even topped that on Saturday.

Again painting his rally as an epic event, Beck noted that, throughout history, whenever mankind seems to lose its way, "Someone appears to wake America up." George Washington did. Abraham Lincoln did. Franklin Roosevelt did. And, without hearing him utter the words, everybody knew what Beck was really saying: "And today, that American Savior -- is me!"

But even that wasn't enough. It didn't start in this country, Beck added. It started all the way back at the burning bush. When the people of God had lost their way and were wandering in the desert, along came Moses! I'm not only the new Washington, Lincoln, FDR, and MLK rolled into one, Beck seemed to say, I'm also the new Moses. At which point, I fully expected him to part the Reflecting Pool and walk across it.

In the end, the Aug. 28 rally was all about the honor and glorification of Glenn Beck. And it was truly disturbing to hear one of the most divisive figures on radio and television preach unity and love. This is the man who called Jimmy Carter a "waste of skin." Who dismissed Hillary Clinton as a "stereotypical b---h." Who accused today's civil rights leaders of distorting the message of Dr. King. And, of course, who called President Obama a "racist."

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday" the morning after the rally, Beck pulled back from his "racist" comment, explaining he only meant to say that Obama was a believer in "liberation theology."

Once again, Beck doesn't get it. Liberation theology -- which reflects the teachings of Jesus by focusing on freeing the poor from unjust social, political, and economic conditions -- was also embraced and practiced by Martin Luther King, the very man whose mantle Beck tried to steal on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

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