8/28 Rallies: Glenn Beck and Al Sharpton

Hello, America! Welcome to the Glen--- I mean Dan, PLEASE Blog. Today we'll be talking about politics. Now, I know what you're thinking.

Well, yesterday my day consisted of normal routines like punching internet elitists in the e-face, rescuing little grandmothers from 6 foot tall bears, manly laughing at evolution textbooks (and Time magazine for that matter), and watching political programming on my semi-old school Philips Magnavox television. There were two rallies I wanted to watch even if one of them was going to make blood shoot out of my eyes. First was Glenn Beck's rally, and the second was Al Sharpton's rally. Now at this point, you've either got your eyes closed with your mouth open catching flies, or you're close to it out of boredom or disinterest.

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Both rallies were done pretty well and touched on a lot of similar things. If you had no idea what a rally looked like or weren't familiar with what themes were discussed, you may have thought both were talking about the same thing. There was discussion about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., God, personal responsibility, brothers and sisters, and dreams. However, if you listened to one group, you may have heard a few buzz words along with many mentions to a different rally in a negative context. I agree the subject of race is tough to discuss especially if you're not considered a minority, but I've never been one to shy away from the difficult discussions. You may ask yourself how there can be two different groups claiming the same ideas from the same man (King Jr.) and yet not be in solidarity. This is a simple, yet complicated (insert oxymoron) answer. Progressives. What is a progressive? Here's some knowledge for you [KNOWLEDGE EXPLOSION]. This movement has co-opted a lot of social causes into their own to form what is known as the collective. While Beck discussed singular activities such as getting YOUR OWN heart right with God and YOU being an example to others, Sharpton's rally had speakers using phrases such as "community-based", "joint society", and "power to the people". Obama has even been on record many times as saying "Our individual salvation depends on collective salvation." I'm pretty sure the last time I read about salvation in the Bible, it didn't say anything about my own salvation doesn't matter unless everyone else has salvation. Why do I mention Obama and these phrases? Because it's the same buzz words and phrases that people believe sounds cool or nice and usually have no clue where it originated from or what it really means. There will be more discussion in future blogs about progressivism, but this should be a warm-up. The following phrases were used in the Sharpton rally which I want you to keep your eyes and ears open for when you watch or hear political commercials and debates: 

• "economic empowerment"
• "progress as a nation"
• "social justice"
• "my plight is your plight"
• "moving America forward"
• "policies to move us forward"
• the word "progress" used in talking about change

America needs to get back to the principles we were founded on. The only person you can control is yourself. Be an example. And with that, I leave you something completely unrelated for comedic relief as a reward for reading through that wall of text.