In a USA Today opinion piece today, National Review Online editor-at-large takes to defending Glenn Beck against attacks from both the left and the right. Goldberg snubs Bill Buckley and claims that the time of “conservative leaders who were… soft-spoken intellectuals” is lost to history. The right doesn’t need intelligence, the right just needs people. “Making conservatism popular means making it less stuffy and intellectual and more accessible,” he says.
This does not appear to be working for the Republicans because their approval ratings are still pretty dismal. Sure, Glenn Beck can get a select few of the party (which he is quick to point out does not support) enthusiastic, but this does not necessarily translate into solid voting numbers. The right is quick to point to Rasmussen’s highly misleading Presidential Approval Index shows that the President’s approval rating is sinking fast and it is re-energizing a new generation of passionate conservatism. Whether or not this leads to electoral wins next year remains to be seen.
