It's a well-established fact that Glenn Beck doesn't like Woodrow Wilson. It's also a well-established fact that Glenn Beck is a phenomenally awful and lazy researcher. These two character traits achieve synthesis in Broke, in which Beck goes on an extended tirade against Woodrow Wilson that is, in large parts, lifted directly from Jonah Goldberg's 2007 book Liberal Fascism.
To be sure, Liberal Fascism makes up the bulk of the citations for the several pages he spends trashing America's 28th president, which should explain why the quotes Beck used, the conclusions he drew from them, and even the punctuation in some cases match up exactly with Goldberg's book.
From page 51 of Broke:
Wilson saw government as a new god, a vehicle through which power could and should be delivered. Writing in his book ominously titled The State, Wilson declared “Government does now whatever experience permits or the times demand.”
From page 86 of Liberal Fascism:
Wilson, along with the vast majority of progressive intellectuals, believed that the increase in state power was akin to an inevitable evolutionary process. Governmental “experimentation,” the watchword of pragmatic liberals from Dewey and Wilson to FDR, was the social analogue to evolutionary adaptation. Constitutional democracy, as the founders understood it, was a momentary phase in this progression. Now it was time for the state to ascend to the next plateau. “Government,” Wilson wrote approvingly in The State, “does now whatever experience permits or the times demand.”
From page 51 of Broke:
He also mocked what he called the “fourth of July sentiments” of those patriotic dolts who actually believed in the governing philosophy of our Founders. “No doubt a lot of nonsense has been talked about the inalienable rights of the individual,” Wilson sneered, “and a great deal that was mere vague sentiment and pleasing speculation has been put forward as fundamental principle.”
From page 86 of Liberal Fascism:
Wilson reinforced such attitudes by attacking the very idea of natural and individual rights. If the original, authentic state was a dictatorial family, Wilson argued in the spirit of Darwin, what historical basis was there to believe in individual rights? “No doubt,” he wrote, taking dead aim at the Declaration of Independence, “a lot of nonsense has been talked about the inalienable rights of the individual, and a great deal that was mere vague sentiment and pleasing speculation has been put forward as fundamental principle.”
From page 52 of Broke:
All these progressive impulses spoke to a view of government radically different than what any of his predecessors in the White House had held. Progressives believed that government was a means by which they could implement the social engineering that Wilson found preferable by enacting policies designed to “redeem” the masses. “Government is not a machine, but a living thing,” Wilson wrote in Congressional Government. “It falls not under the [Newtonian] theory of the universe, but under the [Darwinian] theory of organic life.”
Expanding the size and scope of the state was, therefore, a natural process, a reflection of the evolving times and the enactment of the Social Gospel, which was the use of religion as rationale for solving many social problems.
From page 86 of Liberal Fascism:
Wilson believed that the state was a natural, organic, and spiritual expression of the people themselves. From the outset, he believed that the government and people should have an organic bond that reflected the “true spirit” of the people, or what the Germans called the Volksgeist. “Government is not a machine, but a living thing,” he wrote in Congressional Government. “It falls not under the [Newtonian] theory of the universe, but under the [Darwinian] theory of organic life.” From this perspective, the ever-expanding power of the state was entirely natural.
From page 52 of Broke:
Education was another conduit for spreading the Social Gospel and progressivism. Amassing children together was a great way to not simply educate, but also to transform a new generation of Americans, prompting liberals like John Dewey to call for a new public education system. “Our problem is not merely to help the students to adjust themselves to world life,” said Wilson, “but to make them as unlike their fathers as we can.”
From page 88 of Liberal Fascism:
Hence a phalanx of progressive reformers saw the home as the front line in the war to transform men into compliant social organs. Often the answer was to get children out of the home as quickly as possible. An archipelago of agencies, commissions, and bureaus sprang up overnight to take the place of the anti-organic, contra-evolutionary influences of the family. The home could no longer be seen as an island, separate and sovereign from the rest of society. John Dewey helped create kindergartens in America for precisely this purpose -- to shape the apples before they fell from the tree -- while at the other end of the educational process stood reformers like Wilson, who summarized the progressive attitude perfectly when, as president of Princeton, he told an audience, “Our problem is not merely to help the students to adjust themselves to world life ... [b]ut to make them as unlike their fathers as we can.”
From page 52 of Broke:
In the 1912 election, Wilson ran on the theme of a “second struggle for emancipation” and the need for a “New Freedom.” One of the main obstacles in his path, of course, was that rigid, narrow, cumbersome document: the United States Constitution. Fortunately for Wilson, he had that direct line to God.
“Living political constitutions must be Darwinian in structure and in practice,” he explained. “Society is a living organism and must obey the laws of Life... it must develop. All that progressives ask or desire is permission -- in an era when 'development,' 'evolution,' is the scientific word -- to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle.”
From page 88 of Liberal Fascism:
Indeed, the ink from Wilson's pen regularly exudes the odor of what we today call the living Constitution. On the campaign trail in 1912, Wilson explained that “living political constitutions must be Darwinian in structure and in practice. Society is a living organism and must obey the laws of Life... it must develop.” Hence “all that progressives ask or desire is permission -- in an era when 'development,' 'evolution,' is the scientific word -- to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle.” As we've seen, this interpretation leads to a system where the Constitution means whatever the reigning interpreters of “evolution” say it means.
From pages 52-53 of Broke:
Put simply, Wilson believed that all that was needed to usher in the radical social engineering he envisioned to create his utopia was for Americans to abandon their “blind devotion to the Constitution.” If he could convince the public to do that, all manners of hell could be unleashed. But first, he had to champion the idea that the people behind the Constitution, our Founders, were short-sighted. Sure, they may have been brilliant for their time, but things were different now:
While we are followers of Jefferson, there is one principle of Jefferson's which no longer can obtain in the practical politics of America. You know that it was Jefferson who said that the best government is that which does as little governing as possible... but that time is passed. America is not now and cannot in the future be a place for unrestricted individual enterprise.
From pages 92-93 of Liberal Fascism:
Alas, it is difficult to take his liberty-loving rhetoric too seriously. Just two weeks after his Press Club speech, Wilson returned to his progressive antipathy toward individualism: “While we are followers of Jefferson, there is once principle of Jefferson's which no longer can obtain in the practical politics of America. You know that it was Jefferson who said that the best government is that which does as little governing as possible... but that time is passed. America is not now and cannot in the future be a place for unrestricted individual enterprise.”