Get ready for the “We Surround Them” movement.
Viewing parties are planned across Louisiana for 4 p.m. Friday, although, curiously, none is planned in largely conservative Acadiana. The closest to us are being held in Baton Rouge, Alexandria and Sulphur.
The viewing parties center around conservative commentator and Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck, the originator of the movement. In Friday’s 4 p.m. broadcast on Fox, Beck will lay out the principles and values of “We Surround Them” in an effort to energize Americans concerned about a (perceived or real) move to the left in our nation’s capital.
You can find out more about the viewing parties and the “We Surround Them” movement here.
Like the militia movement of the early ’90s and the Christian Identity politics that persist today, there is the whiff of threat in “We Surround Them,” although in a decidedly more pedestrian way. Beck’s nine principles and 12 values feature de rigueur maxims — God, country, family, personal responsibility. But Beck makes reference to “parts of the country that will rise up” in a recent interview with right-wing darling and fading action hero Chuck Norris. And Norris uses eyebrow-raising terminology in a column on the conservative Web site WorldNet Daily: “Thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns of our nation.”
Rise up? Cell groups?
If a “We Surround Them” viewing party does not materialize here in Lafayette or a surrounding community, be at the Times Grill, 15130 Market St. in Baton Rouge at 4 p.m. Friday. The viewing parties in Alexandria and Sulphur are either TBA or in a private home.