How Defining the Word 'Conservative' Led to a Heated Debate Between Beck and His Co-Hosts

"It has been made for 100 years into a monster! It has been made into the Taliban!"

Glenn Beck and his radio co-hosts Pat Gray and Stu Burguiere got into a heated debate on Friday over the definitions of various political affiliations, and what definition best gets one's point across.

All three acknowledged that many Americans hear the word "conservative," for instance, and think of something completely unlike what a self-described conservative might.

"See, what's happened is conservative has just become this big lump," Beck said. " Everybody has claimed to be a conservative and so everybody thinks they know what 'conservative' means. If you say you're a conservative, they think that means, 'Oh, you're going to bring in a bunch of your Bible thumpers and you're going to control everybody because the Bible tells you to.'"

"No," Beck continued. "The Bible doesn't tell me to do that...That's a conservative who believes in the progressive movement. The conservatives --"

At that point Beck's co-host, Pat Gray, flatly cut him off, saying "you can't be a progressive and a conservative at the same time."

Beck retorted that he had to fight the same fight to make it understood that you can be liberal, and you can be a progressive liberal. He urged people to be specific -- are you a conservative libertarian? A progressive Republican? They're by no means the same, even if people see both as being on the right, he said.

"So you're not going for the no‑labels movement..." Burguiere said. "You're going for the more labels movement?"

"Perception is reality," Beck said, and if you just say you're "conservative," many will have no idea what you mean.

"Look, we tried to make this distinction, did we not, essentially with the Tea Party?" Burguiere said. "And the Tea Party is a distinction from Republicans, from conservatives, from libertarians. It's a pretty specific group. And again, that's already the Taliban again. We just started that one and it's already ‑‑ I think it was 73/21 against in the last poll against the term 'Tea Party'? So I mean, every time we do this, they just vilify that name and then go after it."

Hear Beck's response and the rest of the discussion, below:

Complimentary Clip from TheBlaze TV

[mlbvideo content_id=31082189]

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Get it all with a FREE TRIAL.

Other Must-Read Stories: