The Real America: Messages from the Heart and Heartland

192 Pages·2003·1.43 MB·English

by  Beck

THERE ARE THINGS PEOPLE THINK BUT DON’T SAY ABOUT …
Political Correctness
“It’s the classic Great Idea Gone Wrong. All it’s done is shut us up. It hasn’t
changed anybody’s mind. It hasn’t changed our hearts. It’s changed our faces.
It’s taken every opinion we have, it’s taken every joke we have, and it’s forced
us to conceal it and hide it and bury it. It’s made us superficial.”
Terror
“Terrorism isn’t caused by poverty, poverty is caused by terrorism. Terror is a
tool used by those seeking power to keep the masses in need of an answer.”
Responsibility
“Too many people blame everything on everybody else, and because they do,
they will expect too little from themselves and too little from their children.”
Celebrities
“To understand my true feelings for Barbra Streisand, you first have to
understand that I hate cats. Not only the Broadway show Cats, but the animals
themselves. That said, I would rather live in a world inhabited by nothing but
cats—with the entire population standing on my kitchen counter forcing me to
listen to their screeching version of ‘Memory’—than listen to five minutes of
anything that spills out of Barbra Streisand’s mouth.”
GLENN BECK SAYS ALL THAT, AND MORE.
The Real America
Messages
from the Heart
and Heartland
GLENN BECK
POCKET BOOKS
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POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the
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Copyright © 2003 by Glenn Beck
Afterword copyright © 2005 by Glenn Beck
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof
in any form whatsoever.
For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New
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ISBN: 0-7434-8633-1
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ISBN 13: 978-0-743-49696-4
eISBN 978-1-43910673-0
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For my Dad, my best friend and trusted teacher
Contents
Introduction: The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment
CHAPTER 1
The Real Americans and the Real America
CHAPTER 2
The Great American Lottery and the Decline of Personal
Responsibility
CHAPTER 3
Celebrities in America
CHAPTER 4
Everything You Need to Know About Partisan Politics
CHAPTER 5
Hitler and Jesus Had One Thing in Common
CHAPTER 6
The Enemy Within
CHAPTER 7
Jesse Jackson Is Yasser Arafat
CHAPTER 8
Tolerance
CHAPTER 9
Business: The Engine of America
CHAPTER 10
Glenn Beck: Behind the Music
CHAPTER 11
The Flame That Burns in the Real America
EPILOGUE Stories from the Real America
Acknowledgments
Afterword: The 2004 Election
Author’s Note
The Real America
Introduction
The Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment
This truly is the land of opportunity, because if I can write a book, have a major
company publish it and people like you actually want to buy it, then anyone can.
It took me a long time to get a radio station to pick up my show, because they
didn’t understand it. It didn’t fit neatly into a little box. I don’t talk exclusively
about politics. I don’t speak exclusively about morality. I don’t exclusively
screw around. I’m not Howard Stern, Dr. Laura or Rush Limbaugh (first of all,
those people earn a lot more money). I tell new listeners that it will take them at
least six or eight weeks before they get over their white-hot hatred of the show—
and it may take you two hundred pages to get over your hatred of this book.
Why?
Because it doesn’t belong in the politics, business, comedy, self-help or
spirituality sections.
It does belong on your coffee table, nightstand, bookcase or underneath the short
leg of the couch. In fact, the capitalist in me wants you to buy enough copies to
build a couch.
The concept is the same as on the show: I don’t think people are one-
dimensional. This book should feel like Thanksgiving dinner at your house.
You’ll talk about politics, life and love. You’ll think, laugh and argue. You’ll
look back with fondness and look ahead with optimism. We all feel a wide range
of emotions, and as a borderline schizophrenic, I assure you my range is wider
than it should be.
This book is about real life, real people and the real America.