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To be a White Renegade is to be someone who could have done great good for his people but instead deliberately caused harm. And so it is that in 2016, Mr. Beck receives this dishonor not just because he didn’t lead the rising populist movement, nor is it even because he opposed Donald Trump. It’s that Glenn Beck consciously and purposefully made common cause with those who wish us harm. And the worst part is I still can’t fully explain why.
At the beginning of 2016, Mr. Beck’s stance was easy enough to understand. He enthusiastically backed Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the primaries and condemned Donald Trump as not a “true conservative” because of his supposed friendliness to Democrats and stances on issues such as eminent domain. This alone does not make Mr. Beck a “traitor” or even someone particularly unique in the conservative movement. There’s even a case to be made that Mr. Cruz was to Mr. Trump’s right on immigration.
But the justifications Mr. Beck advanced were bizarre. To him, American conservatism is not a set of political beliefs or even a worldview but a kind of religion. From the “Oval Office” set in his studio, Mr. Beck pronounces judgment on the heretics to the Constitution. With the help of pseudo-historians such as David Barton, Mr. Beck creates an entirely fictitious version of American history in which the Founding Fathers were anti-racist evangelical Christians, wishing away the role of race in the American creation. ...
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