Conservatives' Intellectual Savior? Try Glenn Beck

He doesn't always resort to sound bites

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 2, 2009 11:20 AM CDT

(Newser) – Today's conservative movement is largely brain-dead, complains Steven F. Hayward. The deep thinkers of yesteryear have given way to shallow sloganeers from the mass media. Who will be the movement's intellectual savior? Hayward sees hope in an unexpected person: Glenn Beck. Yes, he weeps on cue, but he alone is proving that it's "possible to engage in some real thought" while filling airtime.

For one, Beck books young conservative scholars for substantive dissections of modern liberalism, notes Hayward in the Washington Post. "Their writing is often dense and difficult, but Beck not only reads it, he assigns it to his staff." Beck will never be confused with brainiac William F. Buckley, but the Fox News host is on the right track. "He just might be helping restore the equilibrium between the elite and populist sides of conservatism."

[Images (2)]

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Glenn Beck in 2007. (Photo: Business Wire)

Glenn Beck in 2003. (AP Photo/Mike Mergen, file)

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The brain waves of the American right continue to be erratic, when they are not flat-lining. - Steven Hayward, Washington Post

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 38 comments

Caps

Oct 4, 2009 1:08 AM CDT

christb01, you Republicans don't read," oh, I read all of them", famous quote from the bimbo from Wasilla. That's a stupid remark from all you right wing AH. Get real and crawl back into your cave, and oh, don't forget your coloring books.

RockyPneumonia

Oct 3, 2009 8:00 AM CDT

Chris, the fact that there are so many sheep willing to follow a demogogue like Beck is hardly cause for celebration.

Spydiggity

Oct 3, 2009 3:32 AM CDT

my voice, that's the world we live in. religion set the precedent. they can make an outlandish claim like 'there's an invisible man in the sky judging everything we do' and it's up to rational thinking ppl to DISPROVE god. they don't have to prove a claim like that. and because 90+ % of the world prescribes to this philosophy, it can be applied to just about anything else.

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Conservatives' Intellectual Savior? Try Glenn Beck