Democracy's Bad Now? Beck Illustrates Right's Split

Essayist: Some conservatives championed Mideast freedom, only to fear it now
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 2, 2011 1:50 PM CST
Democracy's Bad Now? Beck Illustrates Right's Split
Glenn Beck, in a Feb. 20, 2010, file photo.   (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

The demonstrations in Egypt have Glenn Beck on a tear, even by Glenn Beck standards. He's warning that "radical Islam" could take control and, what with one thing leading to another, eventually "destroy the Western way of life," writes Michelle Goldberg in the Daily Beast. But wait, isn't this the same Glenn Beck who urged us a while back to get behind George W. Bush's push to bring democracy to the Middle East via the Iraq war? Yep, and his 180-turn illustrates a widening rift on the right that could affect the 2012 campaign, writes Goldberg.

"On one side are those who actually took all that democracy stuff seriously," she writes. "On the other are those who see the Muslim world only as an enemy to be crushed and controlled. With a Republican primary approaching, it remains to be seen which view of Middle Eastern policy will triumph among conservatives." (More Glenn Beck stories.)

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