The Rhetoric of Glenn Beck's "Battles"*

Not even truthiness
And is it possible that
Pure ideology as
An equally important
An allegory or code
Of appeal was not
I could not tell what
Feature so much in the
He could possibly

Refer to when he
Repetitiousness per se
Compared America
But in the fact that
To a teenager who
By means of it Hitler
Goes out for the night
Provided a "world
With his friends stays

Out beyond cerfew
view" for people who
Drinks and smokes
Had previously
Pot knowing when
Seen the world but
They come home
Piecemeal? Did not
Dad will "kick their

Butt" and they will
Much of his lure derive
Be better off for this
Once more, from the bad
Lesson until I realized
filling of a good need?
He was referring
To everything
Are not those who insist

Threatening his economic
Upon a pure planless
Interest and frankly
Working of the market
Fascist cultural values
Asking people to accept far too
And not something
Slovenly a scheme of
Actually worthy of

Punishment like the
Human purpose, a
Economic exploitation
Slovenly scheme
Of the entire world
That can be accepted
Or the destruction
So long as it operates
Of the environment

I wonder what Glenn
With a fair degree of
Beck could possibly
Satisfaction but
Be thinking when he
Becomes abhorrent
Laments a "simpler
To the victims of its
time" and shows a

Coca Cola commercial
Disarray? Are they not
From the early 70s
Then psychologically
Of a young white boy
Ready for a rationale,
Offering a black
Any rationale, if
Professional football

A coke the football
It but offer them some
Repeatedly refusing
Specious "universal"
The boys offer the boy
Explanation? Hence I
Persistently offering
Doubt whether the appeal
Until he finally accepts

The coke cocking his
Was in the sloganizing
Neck back drinking
Element alone (particularly
Deeply from the archaic
As slogans can only be
Glass bottle an image
Hammered home, in speech
Redolent of com-

passionate masters and
After speech, and two
Complaisant servants the
Or three hours at a stretch,
Context of Civil Rights
By endless variations on
Completely abandoned
The themes). And Hitler
By Fox News' format

Perverted by
Himself somewhat
Neo-colonial fantasies
Justifies my interpretation
Coke = economic
By laying so much
Exploitation qua favor
Emphasis upon the
Child = white master/

White man's burden
Half-measures of the middle-
Black athlete = post-
Class politicians, and the
Jim Crow slave or
Contrasting certainty of
Stereotype of Black
His own methods. He was
People waiting

For a hand-out
Not offering people
It is not obscure at
A rival world view
All what those fascists
Rather, he was offering
In our midst believe
A world view to
As the 'teabaggers'

Signs poorly conceived
People who had no
And spelled incorrectly
other to pit against it
Would have us
Our job, then, our
Believe but a simple
Anti-Hitler Battle is to find
Equation of images and

Signs with ideas and
All available ways of making
Acts of cultural violence
The Hitlerite distortions
Even the terms of
Of religion apparent
Glenn Beck are cod-
In order that politicians
ified they tell us of

A happier time when
Of his kind in America
We were all slaves to
Be unable to perform
The few their economic
A similar swindle
'Developments' and
The desire for unity
Complaisant before

A government
Is genuine and admirable
Disaggregating the body
The desire for national
politic of multitude
Unity, in the present
Governing inasmuch
State of the world is
As all governance

Attempts to divide
Genuine and admirable
Bodies which should
But this unity if attained
Otherwise attract each
On a deceptive basis
Other like a series
By emotional trickeries
Of powers shaping

The One every body
That shift our criticism
The potential to combine
From the accurate locus
With other bodies
Of our trouble, is no
Seize power insurrect
Unity at all for even if we
Become history's subject.


*significant portions of this text are taken from Kenneth Burke's "The Rhetoric of Hitler's 'Battles'"