Glenn Beck, Ron Paul and the Groups They Inspire

Looks like Glenn Beck is now solidly behind Ron Paul and his ideas and even goes to the degree of wishing he could go "back in time" and support his candidacy.

This article is a good example of his progression from Ron Paul hater to Ron Paul enthusiast. It will be interesting to see what happens now that Beck has come out and said that Ron Paul was right. I expect to see plenty of backlash from neocons and other establishment Republicans who have so far been supporting him but have a seething disrespect for anything related to Ron Paul. A good example is the following blog post by David Frum to David Horowitz in which Frum is arguing that Beck is Paul's "Chief TV enthusiast and publicist". There's plenty of good YouTube video links in the above blog posting to back up that assertion. I think it's funny how Frum points out the November 2007 video was before Beck left CNN for Fox as if his going to Fox had anything to do with Beck's transition. Once at Fox Glenn Beck covered Ron Paul favorably a number of times including: here, here, here, here, and other times conveyed a message very similar to Ron Paul like he did here, here, or finally here. On the other hand many in the Ron Paul/Campaign for Liberty supporters refuse to forgive Beck for what he said back in November 2007. Some (hopefully just a few) in the Paul camp even wonder if Beck is some kind of CIA plant to hijack their message.

Glenn Beck isn't 100% responsible for the creation of the Tea Party/We The People group that is developing, but he played a large part in helping its creation and many in that group are big fans of Beck. I think it is vitally important that the Campaign For Liberty and the Tea Party group work together and not view each others as adversaries. The Campaign For Liberty group has been on point with this shared message for more than two years. We have a lot to offer the Tea Party people and I think it's important all grassroots conservative/libertarian groups work together on the common areas of their focus/mission and whenever possible celebrate our similarities rather than nit-picking at our differences. In other parts of Washington I've heard about some very promising examples where these two groups have meshed well in coordinating and organizing events and I hope we see the same cooperative spirit up here in Whatcom county.

Just look how close these two mission statements read:

Campaign For Liberty:

Our mission is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.

BHAM Tea Party (WCCF):

Reverse deficit spending and the concentration of power in central government,
in order to preserve states' rights and individual liberty for future generations.