LA Times Hit the nail dead on the head Becks the "Know Nothing Movement"

[sce56]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/08/glenn-beck-washington-monument-art-critic.html

Glenn Beck puts on his tin-foil art critic's hat -- again

Last year it was nutty conspiracy theories about Diego Rivera's mural for New York's Rockefeller Center, plus his unwitting use of historically socialist and Communist graphic motifs for the logo of his so-called "9-12 project," both promoted on Beck's Fox News television show. This time it was an erroneous -- and unintentionally very funny -- take on the design of the Washington Monument in the center of the National Mall. Pointing to the place about 150 feet up the Egyptian-style obelisk, where the color of the stone suddenly changes, Beck gravely exhorted the crowd to note the "scar" on the founding president's memorial. It happened, he said, when construction was halted for the national trauma of the Civil War -- the apparent implication being that Saturday's rally would perform some necessary plastic surgery on race-related social divisions splitting the country.

Well, close but no cigar. In fact the "scar" predates the Civil War. Work on the long-planned Washington memorial was finally launched during the presidency of James K. Polk, a Democrat, in 1848. Costs for building blocks were being sponsored by citizens, states, territories, foreign dignitaries and others. But after six years of work, and long before completion (almost 30 years later), funds largely dried up. Construction didn't take place during the War Between the States, but it had already long-since stopped -- in 1854, six years before South Carolina seceded from the Union and nearly seven years before Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter. When building ceased, a private group of political activists grabbed the project's reins -- but they promptly made a huge mess of things. Among other problems, they were rabid anti-Catholic nativists, religious fanatics who believed only native-born Americans should hold any public office. They stoked popular fears that waves of Irish and German immigrants were overwhelming the United States. When Pope Pius IX donated a building stone from the Temple of Concord in Rome for the restarted Washington Monument project, the activists had it destroyed. Through in-fighting, ideological division and bursts of election-related violence, the group fell apart after two years The shoddy work they had done on the monument had to be removed. Hence the "scar" we see today.

What were these hardy exemplars of fear-mongering religious nativism called? The Know-Nothing movement -- all of which might help to explain Beck's heartfelt misdirection to the crowd.

[Bitwit1234]

1. You'll never hear about this true

historic fact. It will be twisted to make republicans look good. They say they were the ones who marched in the south. They were the ones who fought for Civil Rights. You read it on their web site. And just think of all the straw brained scarecrows out there who believe it.

[era veteran]

5. Like Kerry was a hippie loser and shrub a hero.

It's enough to make a cat laugh.

[JohnWxy]

11. Helped in NO SMALL PART by M$M sycophants who don't just say: "What? Let's get REAL here?"

M$M continues to lend verisimilitude to the GOP's screw-ball reality twisting (every case of which falls under the category of propaganda known as The Big Lie) by making their nonsensical propositions the currency of popular conversations. Example: Everything the Dems do to try to fix the Deregulation Disaster - the disaster the Republicans created - is the cause of all the unemployment and the Great Recession - not the disastrous Republican policies of Government in Abstentia (except for providing tax cuts to those who least need them) and Deregulation which is actually Deconstruction of the Government.


recommended.

[valerief]

2. Millard Fillmore was a Know Nothing party member and his mother thought he was mentally retarded.

Word used in print is 'retarded'. Don't shoot the messenger.

From Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9038520&mesg_id=9038564

[sce56]

3. So was that your words? If so you beat the LA Times to that Idea.

Now I do remember reading that post now that you have reminded me of it.

[valerief]

9. Well, I came across Know Nothing in Wikipedia while looking up Millard Fillmore.

But the Preamble was mine. (Of course, it's not that clever.)

[Anakin Skywalker]

7. No Worries! If It Offends Sister Saint Sarah.....

then by all means, use it! :)

[valerief]

10. Ha! I just didn't want to offend the diversionists who focus on word rather than a concept. nt

[femrap]

4. Can't beck even

google? No wonder he knows nothing.

[droidamus2]

8. Why should he google?

It is the conservative/Republican way if you don't know the facts or don't like what the facts say make up your own facts. To paraphrase some Republican drone when asked about the reality of the situation 'Reality? There is no reality reality is whatever we decide it is'.

[sce56]

6. Late night kick!