Promoting upcoming Fox show, Beck -- who has called Obama "a Marxist" and criticized "Comrade Clinton" -- decries communist name-calling

In a promotion for his upcoming Fox News program, Glenn Beck claims: "I'm tired of the politics of left and right. It's about right and wrong. We argue back and forth -- 'If you haven't voted for the donkey, you're just a hatemonger.' The other side -- 'Oh, those donkeys trying to turn us into communist Russia.' Stop!" But on his CNN Headline News program, Beck repeatedly compared progressives -- including President-elect Barack Obama, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, and former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) -- to Russian communists, Marxists, and socialists. For instance:

• Beck said on August 4, 2008: "The thing that I do find about Barack Obama is that -- and I think America is starting to catch on to this -- this guy really is a Marxist. He believes in the redistribution of wealth. He believes in the global government and everything else."

• On April 10, 2008, Beck said of Michelle Obama: "I think there is hidden language in especially Michelle Obama. Her language is riddled with socialism." Beck further stated of the Obamas: "For months I've been telling you, Barack Obama, and more his wife than Barack -- I mean, at least looking at her language -- I believe there's a socialist agenda there for America."

• On January 24, 2008, Beck said that Clinton's desire "to get back to the appropriate balance of power between government and the market ... sounds like the Soviet Union" and that "Comrade Clinton has railed against the excesses of the offensive executive pay packages and an out of whack tax code that favors the wealthy while holding down the middle class." He further called her "a liberal fascist ... who wants to redistribute the wealth in this country the way she believes is good for everybody." Beck added that "promising to steal from the rich and give to the poor" only worked for former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin "because he killed 50 million people to force them to live that way." Beck also said of Edwards: "Now, put a red star on his furry head. He's a communist."

• On January 22, 2008, after Harvard University professor Jeff Frankel stated, "All of the past tax cuts have gone primarily to the rich, and I think it's -- it is time to give some of it to lower-income, working Americans," Beck replied: "Nice of you to join us, Stalin. I mean, that is the redistribution of wealth!"

• On January 9, 2008, Beck said of Edwards: "I listened to him last night give a speech, and, I mean, why not just start wearing the Soviet star on your head and the Workers World Party?" Beck added: "Good Lord in heaven. Was it a mistake for him to go after her [Clinton] for crying and then also to join this great Soviet state?"

Additionally, a February 13, 2008, article posted on GlennBeck.com -- headlined "The March to Communism" -- claimed: "We are on a collision course with socialism/communism here in the United States. With [Sen. John] McCain being the GOP nominee, Clinton or Obama will be the favorite in the general election. It's not just a fear slogan to say 'democrats are communist' -- just take a look at their own words AND policies and decide for yourself. ... We hope you think socialism/communism is neat -- because we are going to be waist deep in it about 36 months from now!" From the article:

We are on a collision course with socialism/communism here in the United States. With McCain being the GOP nominee, Clinton or Obama will be the favorite in the general election. It's not just a fear slogan to say 'democrats are communist' -- just take a look at their own words AND policies and decide for yourself.

[...]

March into Socialism/Communism

Other socialist countries (even Russia in some ways) are decentralizing their form of national healthcare -- Obama and Clinton seek to increase government's role in our medical care and treatment decisions and options; worse yet they plan on burying us in debt in order to do it;

Socialist, communist and totalitarian regimes have always focused on harnessing the youth into national organizations. Within these organizations, ideological conformity can be imposed, future leaders can be groomed and political paybacks can be awarded to those who have donated generously in time or money to a particular candidate.

We had over 60 MILLION Americans volunteer their time last year -- most likely without any government incentive for doing so. Do we really need the government sponsoring ideologically based charitable groups like Senator Clinton's US Public Service Academy or Obama's 5-E Youth Services Green Army?

Glenn sums it up this way:

'If you go back and you read history from just before Wilson all the way through FDR, what they were trying to do with these Progressives, which Hillary Clinton claims she is, an early 20th century Progressive. Go back and read about these people. They are telling you who they are, and Americans just won't do the homework. They don't believe in local level. This is the opposite of what our founding fathers set up. These people, all believers in Marxism. They all believed that the Soviet Union would succeed and so what they did was they were looking for something to unite nationally and Mussolini -- you have to put this into perspective. Mussolini was not hated for much of his term. In fact, he was idealized by the left here in America. They thought fascism, before it became about extermination of entire people, they thought, this is a good thing; we could just get the Government to tell people what's good, what's right. That's why the Progressives in the early 20th century brought you prohibition! It wasn't good for you to drink. It wasn't good for society to have alcohol available. And if you didn't agree with them, you were either in on it with big alcohol or you were too stupid and you needed to be retrained. And so they were looking for things that would unite the country but not war and so FDR, one of the projects he started was the Conservation Corps to help the environment, to save our forests. Does any of this sound familiar? Does anybody think that maybe possibly that's the real story behind going green, the environmental movement that now cannot be dissevered from global warming? Starting projects, little armies of the youth! Put them into a mindset that is one with the government, one with the environment, one with the Earth.

Depressing Summary

We hope you think socialism/communism is neat---because we are going to be waist deep in it about 36 months from now!

Beck's promotion for his upcoming Fox News program:

NARRATOR: On January 19th --

BECK: I'm tired of the politics of left and right. It's about right and wrong. We argue back and forth -- "If you haven't voted for the donkey, you're just a hatemonger." The other side -- "Oh, those donkeys trying to turn us into communist Russia." Stop!

Politicians -- do they know what they're doing? Are they just blatantly stupid?

NARRATOR: Bold. Brash. Beck.

BECK: Just the way I roll. Coming to Fox News Channel. January 19th. Be here.