Beck can't get conservative historians to read from his script
Written by Oliver Willis
Published
Since Glenn Beck began his weekly “Founders Fridays” sessions, he's generally had guests on-air willing to go along with his contorted history. Especially people like David Barton, whose version of American history -- no matter how far removed it is from actual history -- has thrilled Beck to the point where he considers Barton indispensable. Today's show was something of a departure from form, as his two guests (Larry Schweikart and Burton Folsom Jr.) were clearly conservatives with their own takes on history but were at times visibly uneasy by Beck's spin on things.
Beck presented his theory about how President Woodrow Wilson helped bring about World War II. Pretty much everyone who has been through a history class anywhere in America believes that WWII came about because Hitler invaded Poland. Beck's guest deflected this theory into a discussion of Wilson's tax policies, and left the conspiracy about Wilson and WWII behind.
Later Beck sought to add his guests' two cents to his theory about how Wilson was somehow behind social justice (which, if you're not up to date on your Beck history, is now a bad thing despite its positive history). This gets shot down almost comically quickly when it's noted that social justice pre-dates Wilson.
Finally, there was a convoluted story about Theodore Roosevelt and the railroad system. Beck started to get into the story, but his guests seemed to have no idea what in the world he's talking about. Beck tried to pull them along, but then just gave up and moved on to an audience question.
Beck had a really hard time tonight, and this was with two conservative historians. Imagine the trouble he would have if he had to deal with history and someone who wasn't approaching it from his worldview.