Spengler for Dummies

by Linh Dinh

Nearly a hundred thousand people flocked to Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally. Entire families drove in from distant states. They wore red, white and blue, carried American and Don't Tread On Me flags. Some brandished a Christian standard, white, with a red cross on blue canton. A man peddled a self-designed, quite attractive Tea Party flag. "Haven't sold as much as I would like," he complained to me, adding, "I'm unemployed." One woman wore a T-Shirt, "HARD GLOCK CAFÉ." Another, "NOT RACIST, NOT VIOLENT, JUST NO LONGER SILENT." They heard Sarah Palin proudly declare that she spoke "not as a politician. No, as something more -- something much more. I've been asked to speak as the mother of a soldier." This, from a woman who is nothing but a politician these days, having relieved herself of all official duties. Aiming for 2012, she's already a very long nose or two ahead of all other stumpers. "Say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet, and you can't take that away from me," Palin reiterated. The sunbaked faithful then heard Glenn Beck urge them to "pray on your knees, but with your door open for your children to see."