"Far more interesting than Beck himself is the increasingly futile effort to classify the protest movement to which he has connected himself.  Here, too, confusion reigns.  In part, this is due to the fact that these “tea party” and “9/12” protests are composed of factions with wildly divergent views about most everything.  From paleoconservatives to Ron-Paul-libertarians to LaRouchians to Confederacy-loving, race-driven Southerners to Christianist social conservatives to single-issue fanatics (abortion, guns, gays) to standard Limbaugh-following, Bush-loving Republicans, these protests are an incoherent mishmash without any cohesive view other than: “Barack Obama is bad.”  There are unquestionably some highly noxious elements in these groups, but they are far from homogeneous.  Many of these people despised the Bush-led GOP and many of them loved it. Add to all of that the fact that this anti-Obama sentiment is being exploited by run-of-the-mill GOP operatives who have no objective other than to undermine Democrats and return the Republicans to power — manifestly not the goal of many of the protesters — and it’s impossible to define what this movement is or what is driving it.  In many ways, its leadership (both organizationally and in the media) is fundamentally at odds with the participants.  How can people who cheered on the Bush/Cheney administration and who want to re-install GOP leaders in power (i.e., Fox News, Limbaugh, the right-wing blogosphere, GOP House members) possibly make common cause in any coherent way with those who are in favor of limited federal government power, reduced debt, privacy, and Constitutional protections — all the things on which the GOP relentlessly waged war for years?  In one important sense, the “tea party” movement is similar to the Obama campaign for “change”:  it stays sufficiently vague and unspecific to enable everyone to read into what they want, so that people with fundamentally irreconcilable views believe they’re part of the same movement."
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Glenn Greenwald (via azspot)

I think this may be the most accurate description I have seen of the 9/12 movement, though I think the writer, and many others who are not fans of Beck or proponents of conservatism, places too great a focus on the fringe - by definition, the minority, even if the loud minority.  I would wager that the vast majority of tea partiers (I refuse to use the term tea baggers, and I think anyone who is serious about debating the issues should as well) are those who fit into the category of “favor[ing] limited federal government power, reduced debt, privacy, and Constitutional protections,” if at the same time overwhelmingly Republican.  My take on the current feeling of right wing politics is that many at the grass root level feel there is no one to turn to; many who support things like Bush’s strong stance against our enemies were also disgusted by the flagrancy of the Republican administration.  Many who believe in social conservativism feel betrayed by the general corruption in Washington, of both parties; however, the bite is stronger from the Republicans because they were “supposed” to be the ones with the moral high ground.

I don’t follow Beck or his writings, though I have read his book Common Sense (which I wrote about here).  I have listened to his show several times, but have yet to hear the controversial statements he is becoming known for.  Rather, his shows are mostly full of folksy good ole days thoughts of how to return the country to times of higher morals and more community, and many times contain great amounts of fluffery - something to be expected from talk radio.  The more extreme things pertaining to racism I have seen have come from left-wing caricatures of the right, rather than from the right itself.  The people I talk to genuinely disapprove of the president’s politics, and would oppose them whether it was Obama, Biden, Clinton, or any other liberal in office.  At the same time, there is no one on the right to turn to for consensus or leadership - thus the frustration.

As Greenwald points out, there are all types of opposition to Obama, just as there were all types of opposition to Bush mere months ago.  There is not necessarily a cogent movement to oppose him, because people come from all backgrounds.  I am incredibly dispirited and disgusted by the attempts to collect all right-wing leaning people into the camp of racist dummies.  According to much of what I see lately, if we didn’t vote for Obama, it is either because we don’t like his skin color, or because we are stupid - or both.  Conservatism has no intellect anymore, declare those who are currently in power.  Decry the wackos on the right as you will - I’ll join you - but remember that they are on the left as well.  Moreover, remember that there are a lot of smart people on both sides of the aisle, and it doesn’t exactly placate the common man to tell him he’s a race driven nitwit.