Glenn Beck, Right-Wing Tea Party Cranks & Doug Ericksen

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The Bellingham Tea Party has managed to keep up a front of simply being about objecting to deficit spending. Many people don't go any farther than reading their simplistic 'mission statement' that says: "Reverse deficit spending and the concentration of power in central government, in order to preserve states' rights and individual liberty for future generations."

But there's a lot more to their mission than that simplistic statement. The Bellingham Tea Party follows Glenn Beck's 'plan' when it comes to what they present as "education", e.g. study classes on the book The 5000 Year Leap and the "Making of America" seminar by Earl Taylor, of the National Center for Constitutional Studies. Those Tea Party indoctrination classes in far-right, conspiracy-theory, racist, revisionist history have gone largely unnoticed by the mainstream media.

Now that Glenn Beck has begun to promote the work of 1930's Nazi sympathizer Elizabeth Dilling, perhaps the media will begin to look at just how extreme Beck and the Tea Party leadership really are and exactly what it is that they are promoting.

And while they're looking, maybe they'll notice which politicians are giving aid and comfort to these far-right ideologues. For instance, (Republican State Senate candidate) Doug Ericksen is usually pretty careful to keep his far-right connects out of public view but the Bellingham Tea Party couldn't resist thanking him for hosting their extremist guest speaker, Earl Taylor.

From the Bellingham Tea Party website (emphasis added):

"Making of America" Seminar was Wonderful

It may sound crazy to some to spend a Saturday listening to someone talk about the Constitution and early American History, but for the 80+ people that attended, it was a great day filled with valuable information. We left with a better understanding of what our Founders intended for America and how much we have strayed. Earl Taylor, of the National Center for Constitutional Studies was an excellent speaker. Thanks to all who attended and to Ellen Baker for coordinating all of this. Special thanks to Doug and Tasha Ericksen for opening their home to Dr. Taylor's and acting as our host during his stay in Bellingham.

If you attended the "Making of America" seminar, you want more. If you missed it, you should consider signing up for classes sponsored by the Bellingham Tea Party. This class is produced by the National Center for Constitutional Studies and the DVDs teach the 28 principles of Liberty.

We want to thank Don Chadd and Hugh Foulke for volunteering to coordinate these classes.

http://www.bhamteaparty.org/index.html

From the SourceWatch entry on Glenn Beck (emphasis added):

Positions

Much of Beck's promotion of conspiracy theories and views on race can be attributed to his admitted ideological debt owed to Cleon Skousen, a controversial and discredited Mormon anti-communist "historian," far-right speaker, author and racist.^[14] Skousen authored more than a dozen books and pamphlets on the Red Menace, New World Order conspiracy, Christian child rearing, and Mormon end-times prophecy.^[14]

A former FBI clerk, fired chief of police, and Brigham Young University teacher, Skousen was disavowed or disowned by nearly every organization he was affiliated with, including the FBI, the city where he served as chief of police, the American Security Council, and the Mormon church. On the subject of Skousen's anti-communist scholarship a 1962 FBI memo said "During the past year or so, Skousen has affiliated himself with the extreme right-wing 'professional communists' who are promoting their own anticommunism for obvious financial purposes" and Skousen's "The Naked Communist, ... another example of why a sound, scholarly textbook on communism is urgently and badly needed."^[14]

In September 2007, a year after Skousen's death, Beck began touting Skousen's book "The 5,000 Year Leap" on his radio and television shows, through his websites and at his speaking engagements. The 5,000 Year Leap is Skousen's attempt to "explain American history through an unspoken lens of Mormon theology." Going beyond mere endorsement, Beck played a central role in seeing a new edition published, and wrote the foreward for the edition, writing "I beg you to read this book filled with words of wisdom which I can
only describe as divinely inspired." In Beck's announcement of introducing the 912 Project he called for all 912 members to buy the book, saying "The first thing you could do," he said, "is get 'The 5,000 Year Leap.' Over my book or anything else, get 'The 5,000 Year Leap.' You can probably find it in the book section of GlennBeck.com, but read that. It is the principle. Please, No. 1 thing: Inform yourself about who we are and what the other systems are all about. 'The 5,000 Year Leap' is the first part of that. Because it will help
you understand American free enterprise … Make that dedication of becoming a Sept. 12 person and I will help you do it next year." The result was that more than 250,000 copies have been sold in the first half of 2009. The book's publisher says Beck "has done more to bring the work of Dr. Skousen to light than any other individual in America today."^[14]

Another of Skousen's works, a slavery revisionist history titled "The Making of America" is the subject of daylong seminars to 912 chapters conducted by Dr. Earl Taylor Jr. president of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, which was founded by Skousen. Salon described it as "filled with factual errors, Skousen's book characterized African-American children as "pickaninnies" and described American slave owners as the "worst victims" of the slavery system" and Skousen as "a right-wing crank whom even conservatives despised."^[14]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glenn_Beck