Last week, conservative American media commentator, Glenn Beck hosted what he billed as a 'Restoring Honour' rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

This rally, staged on August 28, was designed to evoke the famous Martin Luther King Junior civil rights march rally held at the same location and on the same day 47 years before. Beck, almost messianic like, called the rally to supposedly demonstrate that many millions of Americans share his views about the decline of patriotism and spiritually-based family values. What Beck was attempting to convey the image of was that he was leading the creation of a new civil rights movement, this time of mainly white, urban middle class Americans. This evocation of the King name in the service of a conservative agenda angered black civil rights leaders, including the Reverend Al Sharpton. After all, King was known to hold views that were genuinely progressive and rooted in social justice. In this respect, Beck's views have nothing in common with those of the late Dr King's (even though Beck did invite King's right wing niece, Alveda, to the rally to give the false impression that King himself would have approved of it).

The reality is that this march represents one more sign that neoconservatives are hitting the streets of America in increasing numbers. While populist conservative movements have come and gone before in America, what is different about this renewed level of activism is that it has been a reaction to the end of the long Reaganite and Bushite ascendancy in the White House. I believe this is the case as for almost thirty years, the neoconservative consensus held sway over all of the Oval Office's occupants between 1981 and 2009. I also believe this because even Bill Clinton, following the Republican congressional sweep in 1994, became a large scale convert to Reaganism. With the global financial crisis in 2008 came the election of Barack Obama, the first progressively inclined president for nearly 45 years.

For this reason, Obama has acted as a red flag for the conservative right , even more than Bill Clinton ever did. Last year, Tea Party rallies across America saw protesters carrying placards confusingly depicting Obama as both a Nazi and a Communist. Truly, he is neither. But that doesn't matter to the neoconservative hordes. To many of them (including the so-called 'birther' movement) Obama is nothing but a foreign-born leader who is secretly a Muslim. In the post 9/11 political and cultural environment, Obama has been grist to the mill for this small milieu of neoconservative opinion.

Enter Glenn Beck. Involved in the media since his teens, he has become a star presenter over the past two years at the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News Network. Prior to that, he was a colourful talking head for CNN before his neoconservative convictions saw him jump over to Fox. From watching what I have of Beck's programmes (which screen in New Zealand via Sky Television), they appear to be amusing and at the same time alarming. Amusing because I can't work out if Glenn is acting as a comedian (which he also is) or is being serious. Either way, his programmes warn about the fiendish plots being hatched by the Obama administration to enslave America. I can particularly remember one programme (which triggered massive laughter from me) where Beck said he had inside information that the Obama team was developing a plan to open concentration camps to intern Americans opposed to political correctness. Alarmingly, from what I could see of Beck's expression though, he meant it seriously. If that is the case, then Glenn is seriously deluded. His fellow Fox commentator, the odious Bill O'Reilly, I remember jumped on this bandwagon the next night. 

However, there appears to be one difference between Beck and O'Reilly - the latter hasn't yet staged a political rally. What does alarm me is that Beck is attempting to influence the Republican electoral campaign and if the party gains congressional seats at the mid-term elections (as seems likely) then a number of neoconservatives, who are fellow travellers with Beck, will hold sway over the political process. This is a frightening prospect as many millions of Americans who rely on the federal government (mainly the very poor, working families and even patriotic war veterans) will face cuts to services and benefits if a Republican majority pushes for severe spending cuts to trim back the deficit. At the same time, Beck and his minions will go on to push Obama over any future Supreme Court appointments so that things like anti-gun laws and abortion rights are stripped away.

As for Beck, I believe that he's also full of his own self-importance. I wouldn't be surprised if, at some future point, he ran for public office on a Republican ticket with Tea Party backing.  After all, his fellow Tea Party sympathiser and former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin spoke at the rally too. And Palin caused the John McCain presidential campaign huge headaches last time. If Glenn Beck were to run for Congress in say 2012, then more moderate presidential aspirants like Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal might be tempted to distance themselves from endorsing somebody like him when it came to the general election.

In the meantime, the real Glenn Beck - comedian or aspiring politician - should stand up and say what he's really up to.