Glenn Beck -- Helpful or Hurtful?

Glenn Beck has become the whipping boy for liberal media pundits like Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Stewart and all the rest.  The reason is simple: his daily TV program is growing in audience numbers and influence, while theirs are losing audience numbers and influence.  The producer of one of the libs's program recently suggested, on air, that she didn't know why Glenn Beck was allowed on TV since he was mentally unstable.  So what is Beck doing that upsets these people so much?  Among other things he's discussing the causes of recessions and what we need to do to come out of them.  Beck's prescription for coming out of this recession follows that  proposed and enacted for coming out of recessions by Ronald Reagan and Jack Kennedy. Since the solutions of these two presidents are not  being employed by the Obama administration, namely big tax and spending cuts leading to a smaller government,  the Obama liberal media enablers are outraged,  resorting to their usual character assassination and ad hominem attacks.  What we are seeing here is nothing more than the struggle between those who want bigger government through increased spending and regulation of the economy, and those who want exactly the opposite.  Those who study history know that the greatest periods of economic growth have always occurred during periods of the least amount of government interference in the the markets and during periods of minimal taxation.  It has always been so and always will be so. Some people simply can't abide that message largely because it reduces their influence.  Rather than excoriating Beck, everyone should applaud him  at the very least, for trying to educate his viewers on these subjects.

ADDED:  Here is a pretty fulsome paen to Mr Beck by someone I am not familiar with.  It sounds pretty accurate based on what I know about him.

ADDED: 6/5/10.  Amity Slaes is a conservative columnist who writes for WSJ, Weekly Standard, etc.  Her column here describes Glenn Beck's threat to the established professoriate guild that tilts strongly progressive while Beck is pushing non-academic professionals who are presenting another view of history and current events.  Profs don't like this intrusion into their little monopoly on learning credentials and are going on the attack.  According to Amity they have reason to be afraid since their stranglehold on the interpretation of history is being challenged by non guild writers.

ADDED:  This article by Matthew Continetti of the Weekly Standard, provides a clear picture of Glenn Beck and his role in the Tea Party and Republican firmament.  Continetti thinks Beck represents the dismal or root canal face of Conservatism while by contrast Ronald Reagan represnts the optimistic, forward looking, optimistic face.  Bot faces are real and legitimate, however Reagan's face is the one that makes the Republican Party capable of winning elections.  Barry Goldwater, for example, was a root canal Conservative who wanted to repeal the New Deal, etc, and lost bit time.  RR was uninterested in repealing the New Deal, rather in passing laws that promoted growth and limited the role of the government in the economy (through less regulation).