ivoteamerica

By Alan Caruba

It’s the curse of having sat through too many local town council meetings and too many speeches by politicians; it’s taking notes as they speak because you want to keep what’s said fresh in mind.

Regular folks don’t do this, but anyone who has spent any time as a reporter will tell you it is a hard habit to break.

So, on Tuesday, January 11, I found myself taking notes as New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, gave his first constitutionally required State of the State speech. He will be back in February with a speech about his budget.

A Jolly, Fat Buzz-Saw

Christie’s State of the State speech was delivered to the members of the New Jersey Senate and Assembly, mostly Democrats; all of whom had learned in the previous year that the Governor was a jolly, fat buzz-saw who just loves a good fight.

Gov. Christie was preceded by two of the worst Governors in current times, Jim McGreevey who discovered he was gay after he put his boyfriend on the payroll and the whispers in the statehouse became a raging storm. He was followed by Jon Corzine, a limousine liberal. Together they increased taxes and fees 115 times in eight years! In a single term in office, Corzine raised taxes $9 billion!
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We keep hearing the socialists (formerly Democrats) claim in their typically shrill and whining voices that Republicans are not setting forth any ideas. To hear Democrats tell it, Republicans are just a bunch of obstructionists.

Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future is a compelling and sensible treatise our friends Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and even our President, Barack Obama should read and apply to our current national economic situation.

“We have a fundamental difference of opinion with the Democrats…They believe through all of their policies that people are stuck with their current station in life and that it is government’s job to help them cope with it. We don’t believe in that. We believe in the American idea…And the idea of this country is that the government helps to promote equal opportunity so that people can make the most of their lives and reach their potential and their destiny…If we do not turn our fiscal situation around…we will see the best century in America be the last century of America.”

- Paul Ryan (R – WI)

Ryan calls for getting America back on track using real numbers, data and even legislation. He is the strongest positive voice in laying out the solutions required for curing the national debt and saving America from economic collapse.

Health care reform, social security, tax reform and the national shift from personal responsibility to dependency upon government for our solutions are all addressed.

Download the Roadmap for America’s Recovery 2.0.

Watch the video below, taking special note of the visuals aids used by Congressman Paul Ryan.

LEARN MORE ABOUT PAUL RYAN.

Mark Levin and I are new pals. That is, I am a new listener to his compelling multi-hour program via my satellite radio connection. Last week I found myself driving aimlessly in order to capture all Mark could give me.

My sense of Mark and what drives him is growing. Along with my appreciation of his positions, I find his arguments used to sustain his viewpoints nearly impregnable.

Seldom am I upset when a radio talk show host concludes his/her broadcast. Not so with Mark. I’m pissed off that he has shut down because I want more of him, his wit, his intelligence, his anger, his overall persona and his direct approach to the problems we all face.

Just this week he told a caller who praised the health care system in North Korea to “get the hell out” of America and move to North Korea if he thought their health care system was so remarkable. Why, I thought, for the love of God, don’t more people act like Mark and just cut to the proverbial chase? If America is so screwed up, just get the hell out!
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Glenn Beck was once a semi-obscure former disk jockey who landed a seat in the back row of CNN’s Headline News channel. He was allowed to babble as CNN’s token conservative or, quasi independent idiologue so long as he didn’t disrupt CNN’s patently obvious bias for left-leaning journalism. He was never a candidate to fill-in for Larry King or Wolfe Blitzer, that’s for sure.

Beck is not a journalist in the classical sense. He is not a lawyer as far as we know. Glenn is not a Harvard or Princeton educated guy. GB is not a person a network would or could or even should shove into a prime time news slot.

Enter Fox News. Enter Roger E. Ailes, President of Fox News Channel and Chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group. Enter Glenn Beck to a favored opportunity to join the likes of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity as perhaps the most watched back-to-back duo in television news history.

Beck is not Your Run of the Mill Class Clown

Other bloggers and haters of Beck have labeled him as a kind of class clown and someone who lacks the credentials and sensibility to be taken serious.

iVoteAmerica differs with other opinion-makers who ridicule Mr. Beck for his style and choreographed presentations that decidedly paint him in conservative red, white and blue colors.

We don’t doubt for a minute that he is entertaining. Who can argue that his Fox News program and two books, both best sellers, have catapulted him into the star-studded line-up of right leaning commentators?

We want to ask and try to answer the question, why is Glenn Beck such a phenom? The short answer is simple and sublime…HE IS US. He is the average, mainstream, common sense American that tends to see more and understand more than the coastal liberals and left-leaning snobs would ever care to admit, much less believe.

Beck’s grasp of the issues and black board bullet-pointed presentations remind us all of our elementary school days; of our better times and of times of temperance and a life that we long to once again have, if only the government would stop robbing us of it.

It’s the Blackboard, Stupid

We trust Glenn with a trust we have not extended to a media news personality for a long, long time. His black board, chalk and eraser convey a pictorial image of basic, uncomplicated reason with respect to political matters.

Glenn Beck is my boy scout leader (Harvey Gardner) who taught me respect for people, belief in country and discipline and courage. Glenn is my Sunday School teacher, giving me lessons on values and letting me know that belief in God is not only okay, it makes complete sense.

Mr. Beck is my high school football coach (Gary Hall) who could yell at me, call me misguided and lazy and yet, in so doing, challenge me to think more and try harder.

Glenn Beck is a phenomenon because he is not only like us, he likes us! He is like those in whom we have been able to place our trust without disappointment. He is the visage of your and my youth and the times of rational, value-based culture where we were taught right from wrong and somehow we knew the lessons were true because the voice was true.

The black board, the humor, the red direct-line phone to the White House and all of the stage craft utilized by Beck, including his reasoned rhetoric is the missed voice of America, calling us back to the basic assumptions, principles and truths that made us a great nation.

Glenn Beck is a phenomenon not because he set out to be such but rather, because he is simply us and this forces the phenomenon upon him. Glenn Beck is America and American, rolled into one. He is you, he is me and he is us. Thus, he is a phenomenon.