Rick Moran and Robert McCain have a go at each other: is Glenn Beck a loon?

Hot Air headlined an essay by Rick Moran yesterday, called “Glenn Beck and the Radical Right.” In it, Moran argues that conservatives should distance themselves from the conservative talk show host, because he’s “a kook.”

The man who works for Pajamas Media and the American Thinker continues:

I am losing contact with those conservatives who find Beck anything more than a clown – and an irrational one at that. Same goes for those who worship at the altar of Rush, Hannity, Coulter, and the whole cotton candy conservative crowd. I can’t take those people seriously. The fact that they are popular mystifies me. Our heroes 20 years ago were Reagan, Buckley, Fitzpatrick, Kirk, Goldwater, Anderson, and others who didn’t see conservatism as a meal ticket but as something to think about, to write about and contemplate man’s place in the world and his relationship to government and God.*

Robert Stacey McCain responded to Moran’s piece, defending Bleck and others like him. It’s an interesting albeit long read. Click on the link and read it.

Ironically, both men – who disagree so passionately with each other – are right. Moran is right to criticize Limbaugh, Coulter, and Beck. He’s right to call them ‘extreme.’ They are. The ‘radical right’ is their niche. They aren’t thoughtful, reasonable, moderate conservatives. They’re die hards or they pretend to be at least.

But that’s because they are talk show hosts. They aren’t professors nor grand thinkers and philosophers of conservatism. There are or should be others who take that role upon themselves.

Furthermore, these people appeal to ‘John Doe conservatives,’ they don’t to those who read and continue to read the Austrian School’s works. Moran writes that Hayek, Kirkpatrick, etc. used to be “heroes” to conservatives, but I think he’s wrong about that. They used to be heroes to intellectual conservatives, not to the average conservative on the street, normally too busy with making money (to take care of his family), to read these intelectuals’ essays and books. These conservatives all cater to different people, and they have always done so.

In other words, if one believes that Beck, Limbaugh, etc. are the ‘intellectual leaders’ of the conservative movement, we’ve got a problem. But no one who understands conservatism and its movement in the U.S. (or Europe), believes they are. They simply fire up the masses, inspire the grass roots, and make sure the debate isn’t monopolized by their liberal counterparts.

This means they too have a role to play, albeit a different one than the truly intellectual conservative leaders. It’s an important, yet different role.

Conservatives like Moran – who favor a more intellectual approach to politics – are wise to keep the above in mind. Going after Beck and Limbaugh is not only useless, but counterproductive. They too are an important part of the conservative movement, just like leading intellectuals are. What these two groups should not do, is to go after each other, declaring each other the ‘enemy.’ They’re not. Liberals like Al Franken are.

* I believe Rick’s an atheist so that “and God” is an interesting addendum