The deviously young McCain correctly noted that the overt racism expressed by old fogies like Tom Tancredo at the Tea Party convention, would likely repel those of her generation. Beck's reaction to this is downright psychotic as he damns a whole generation as commie dupes.

Beck: Lenin had a phrase for people like these. They were called "useful idiots." I think a lot of our twenty-somethings are becoming useful idiots. One of those useful idiots seems to be Meghan McCain. She is John McCain's like totally awesome like daughter.

Only Beck could find an association to Lenin in McCain's words. The sentence fragment that Beck extracted to vent his outrage was when McCain said that "revolutions start with young people." That sent Beck into a frenzy of mockery. He slipped into his "stupid person" voice (which is indistinguishable from his regular voice) and grumbled sarcastically about what idiots old people are. Of course McCain never came even close to implying that. The whole of her commentary had to do with how the lack of young people in a "movement" like the Tea Crusades would doom it to failure.

After relentlessly deriding McCain for several wasted minutes, Beck eventually came up for air and admitted that she was right after all - revolutions do start with young people. But in Beck's interpretation it was the young who were exploited by elderly radicals. Perhaps Beck, the historian and fan of Founding Fathers, is referring to doddering old revolutionaries like Thomas Jefferson (32 years old in 1775), John Jay (30), James Madison (24), Alexander Hamilton (20), Thomas Paine (38), and that ancient eminence George Washington (43).

The point of Beck's breakdown seems to have been that Obama and the progressives are trying to turn kids against their parents and undermine the family unit - the foundation of American society. It's all tied into the battle for the sanctity of marriage and a kind of senior superiority. He belittles the notion that there is anything that adults could learn from their kids. Presumably Crosby, Stills, and Nash were in on this child endangerment plot 40 years ago when they recorded "Teach Your Children" which included a verse aimed at the kids to teach their parents as well.

How sad for Beck and his own kids. I assume they never talk back to him or express (or even form) their own opinions. He appears to advocate a philosophy of parenting that requires children to be obedient and silent. He seems to believe that past generations never had any of the natural tension that accompanies growing up. He regards children as appendages with no inherent value of their own. At one point he reduces the youthful quest for knowledge to nothing more than a lustful obsession and uses himself as an example of how petty and narrow-minded young people are. I'm sure he's right as regards himself, but he certainly doesn't have any appreciation for the intellectual curiosity and experiential adventurism that makes youth such a vibrant and fulfilling chapter of life.

Beck played some videos he found on the Organizing for America web site (a DNC project) that showed young folks describing their efforts to get their parents interested in voting. Beck characterized this an Obama affront to the biblical mandate to honor thy father and thy mother. Those kids should keep their mouths shut and follow their parents' example. Any exhibition of individuality or free will must be nipped in the bud. And any encouragement of such behavior is, in Beck's demented eyes, a conspiracy to corrupt the young and produce a generation of socialist drones.

This is yet another Beckian sermon that elevates dogma over free thought. In the name of familial harmony, what Beck is actually promoting is parental tyranny and abuse. This might be a good time to review a bit of Beck's biographical history. His parents were divorced when he was quite young, thus despoiling the sanctity of his family. He lived with his mother until she committed suicide when he was thirteen. Now, what was that about following your parents example. Glenn?