[VIDEO] Glenn Beck Compares Being a Liberal to Being an Alcoholic

Posted by Adele Stan, AlterNet at 6:55 AM on September 23, 2009.

Katie Couric's Webcast interview with Glenn Beck goes a long way to getting at the man behind the bluster, and it's well worth watching in its entirety. Throughout the interview, Beck accuses Couric of trying to get a sound bite out of him that will play against him and looks around nervously. Although he's wise to try to watch his words -- any interview can rebound badly for the subject -- his paranoia is palpable.

Nonetheless, he does talk about two very personal subjects: his own alcoholism and his mother's suicide when he was 13 years old.

It was his alcoholism that informed his former views as a "social liberal," Beck explains. Once he sobered up, he saw the light.

Of course, none of that explains the millions of recovering alcoholics who are liberals. Were I not one myself, I'd say, "Give that man a beer."

Here's the transcript; video below. The comments on liberalism and alcoholism begin around 2:30.

GLENN BECK: I used to be a real social liberal but that’s only because -- I don’t mean to offend anybody here, well, what the heck, I will anyway --I was an alcoholic, and I’m a recovering alcoholic, and I think I was more of a liberal not for any thought process other than I just wanted to keep my options on the table, you know what I mean? Just keep everything out there, so, hey, that’s cool; I’m cool with that. [PUTS BOTH THUMBS UP]

When I sobered up I started looking at all the things that I believed in and decided to take everything out and only put the things back in me that I knew to be true -- not because somebody told me, not because of a political party, not because of my upbringing, but because I really thought it. And I would put it back in and then I would look at all the other things that I found were true, and then I would match them. If one of them didn’t fit with the other, then one of them had to be wrong.

KATIE COURIC: I’m trying to understand the liberal-alcoholism analogy.

BECK: See -- it’s liberals -- they don’t understand that. I think they’re all -- no.

COURIC: No, explain it, because some people might be scratching their heads and saying, ah, huh?

BECK: Socially liberal -- being able to keep absolutely everything on the table. Being able to say, well, there’s nothing wrong with that, and it doesn’t hurt society here, it doesn’t hurt society there -- I think is a, I think is an easy way to live your life.

COURIC: So you think people who are socially liberal are making excuses for bad behavior? Is that what you’re saying.

BECK: I think some do -- not all


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Tagged as: glenn beck, katie couric, alcoholism, liberalism, cbs news

Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's Washington bureau chief.