Glenn Beck looks to the Third Reich for inspiration...

"When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jackboots. It will be Nike sneakers and smiley shirts."

Glenn Beck (in Nike sneakers, right)

Coffee Bean wrote, as usual, a very intelligent, thought-provoking response to my evisceration of former local radio hack Glenn Beck. I was furious with him for his revolting exploitation of the 9-11 terrorist attack - creating what he dubbed 'The 9-12 Project' to 'return America to the mindset it had the day after the Twin Towers fell.'

Jodi shared my opinion of this idiot, responding: "On 9/12 I was angry, scared and depressed. I felt utter helpless and hopeless. So, yeah. Can't wait to feel THAT again."

Coffee Bean tried to explain what she believed the 9-12 project was all about - in a way that was far more clear, concise and heartfelt than anything Glenn Beck had said. (We really should petition for Fox News to give her Beck's job - we could get Kathleen Turner to do the voice-over work if Coffee Bean's not happy about speaking on air.)

CB wrote:

"[The 9-12 project is about] remembering how awful 9/11 was and how we were all Americans first. [It's about] trying to get people to come together and start becoming more aware of what is going on in our country. He's trying to get people to start paying more attention to their neighbors and develop deeper relationships..."

I think that's a wonderful, admirable intention and would entirely support it- if I believed for one second that this was truly the intention behind Glenn Beck's project. I don't, however. I know exactly what he's thinking and exactly why he chose 9-11 as the launching point for his despicable little crusade.

If Beck was genuine in his intentions, he'd have turned not to the devastating tragedy of September 11, but to some positive, unifying date in American history. At the risk of sounding hokey, the 7-4 project (July 4th) would be an ideal choice.

Independence Day is when Americans come together to celebrate the principles of individual freedom, equality and liberty - the ones that inspired peaceful men to take up arms against the British and fight for their freedom.

The 9-12 project, on the other hand, celebrates a very different 'unifying event.' The day after the Twin Towers fell, Americans huddled together in fear and anger, unified in blind nationalism and hatred of an unknown enemy.

It was those numb months following the attacks of September 11th that led to the Patriot Act, the opening of Guantanamo Bay, the invasion of Iraq and the approval of 'torturing' prisoners. Using fear as a winding sheet, the administration pressured the American people into condoning a course of action which was in violation of every founding principle of the United States.

And, for some reason, it's that mentality Glenn Beck wants to re-inspire in Americans with the 9-12 Project. Nationalism, fear, hatred and suspicion. It's a technique that's worked extremely well for other regimes in the past.

The obvious parallel is the Reichstag Fire of February 1933, when communist terrorists set the seat of the German parliament ablaze.

In the aftermath of that devastating attack, the German nation fell in support of a man whose political currency was 'fear' and 'hatred.' That man was Adolf Hitler - and the Reichstag Fire is often accredited as the defining event which led to his election as supreme Chancellor.

Even at the risk of falling foul of Godwin's Law and Leo Strauss's indictment of the Reductio ad Hitlerum argument, I think it's fair to point out the similarity between what happened after the Reichstag Fire and what Glenn Beck wants to achieve with the 9-12 project.

If there was even a shred of positivity behind what Beck wanted to achieve, he would have based his 'project' around a positive event. Instead, because he wants to exploit America's fear and suspicion, he chose to hijack a true American tragedy and exploit it for his own ends.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not equating Glenn Beck with Hitler - far from it. At best, Glenn Beck is attempting to be a second-rate Goebbels - and almost a decade too late even for that.

All I'm pointing out is his bankrupt morality - the disgusting way he took a real tragedy from recent American history and manipulated it to his own ends. What made it even worse is his abject contempt for the real victims of 9-11 - the ones who lost family when the Twin Towers fell.

"When I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh, shut up!' I'm sick of them." Glenn Beck, on his radio show

Beck is a wannabe little fascist, puffing up his feathers, squawking patriotic soundbites and trying to sound relevant in a world that has thankfully moved on from 'the day after 9-11.'

It's that 'moving on' which terrifies him. Glenn Beck's career was built on 9-11 (his Tampa, Fla. radio show was only syndicated nationally the days after the Twin Towers fell.)

By pushing so hard to give birth to this vile '9-12 Project', he's revealed how desperate he is to keep that fear and uncertainty alive - because that's all his pathetic 'career' is based on...

...that, and a rather uncanny similarity to the actor who portrayed 'The Voice of London' in the popular movie V for Vendetta. Watch the clips and compare for yourself:

Authentic propaganda from Glenn Beck himself:



'The Voice of London' from the classic movie V for Vendetta: