The story behind Obama’s doc “The Road We’ve Traveled”

March 16, 2012

Writer

The Obama campaign has enlisted the help of Hollywood to make a mini-documentary on how awesome Barack Obama’s Presidency has been. Of course, he’s been so horrific a president it makes sense he’d need to recruit people who make stuff up for a living to promote himself. Why’d they select that name? Glenn covered the story on radio this morning!

Read the transcript of the discussion below:

GLENN: Well, hello, America. Welcome to the program. There is a lot to discuss. There is some amazing, some amazing things that nobody could find, you know, that was a problem for the president in the new Tom Hanks documentary which I think is ‑‑ Tom, you must be so proud. You must be so proud. You're so neutral in this, you're making a campaign film, it really is a propaganda film for Barack Obama. The problem with it is the filmmaker said, you know, the only thing that we could really find bad about Barack Obama is that it was just so good. I've never ‑‑ huh.

PAT: Yeah, here's what he said with Piers Morgan the other night.

MORGAN: These documentary makers, you know, balance these movies with the negative as well as the positive. What are the negatives in your movie about Barack Obama?

VOICE: Well, I mean, the negative for me was there were too many accomplishments. I had, you know, 17 minutes to put them all in there but I think ‑‑

MORGAN: Oh, come off it. Come ‑‑ you can't say that with a straight face. Come on.

VOICE: I'm looking at you right now with a straight face. I mean, look, I mean ‑‑

MORGAN: The only negative about Barack Obama is there are too many positives is this

VOICE: That was a negative ‑‑ excuse me, a negative for me.

MORGAN: Oh.

VOICE: Which is, you know, I ‑‑ the challenge for me was I wanted to put more in there, I really did.

MORGAN: Are there any negatives in there?

VOICE: I think they're negatives in the sense that the challenges when you're trying to pass healthcare in a really toxic environment, they're negatives in terms of the opposition he's had.

PAT: That is Debbie Wasserman Schultz‑worthy right there.

STU: It is, that's almost Debbie Wasserman Schultz syndrome right there.

GLENN: After four years the only bad thing they found about their time in office was... it was just too good.

STU: I'm glad, too, they got the guy, Tom Hanks, who also brought us the documentary about how we were all just racists in World War II 6789 wasn't that the same?

GLENN: Yeah, it is.

STU: That's right.

GLENN: It is.

STU: All it was was about our Japanese racism.

GLENN: Yeah, mmm‑hmmm.

STU: Certainly nothing to do with, I don't know, Nazis and stuff.

PAT: And being attacked.

GLENN: Or being attacked.

STU: And being attacked.

GLENN: By the empire of Japan.

STU: It certainly had nothing to do with that.

GLENN: It had nothing to do with that.

STU: It was our racism.

GLENN: It was our racism.

STU: Uh‑huh.

GLENN: You know what? Tom Hanks, how do these guys dupe us? And, you know, I apologize to the family members, unless they're all communists, too, of Jimmy, Jimmy Stewart. Because I've always thought that Tom Hanks was our Jimmy Stewart. He couldn't be further from Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy Stewart and Hank Fonda, they were all decent Americans. They loved the country. They were decent, good Americans.

STU: I don't know that ‑‑ yeah, I mean, that last ‑‑ this thing, I mean, he's just a crazy Hollywood liberal which you'd sort of expect, though I feel like for a long time he wasn't out there making a big deal out of that.

GLENN: Oh, no. I mean, of course no.

STU: I don't know why it's changed.

GLENN: They all hide. I mean, look at Barack Obama. By the way, the name of this, the name of this documentary is The Road We've Traveled, right?

STU: Mmm‑hmmm.

GLENN: Could you do me a favor? Could you look up Stuart Chase? I believe Stuart Chase is the guy who coined the term The New Deal. I'm pretty sure. There's this book from the 1930s that was written by Stuart Chase and I thought of it this morning as we were thinking about the movie The Road We've Traveled, Stuart Chase, have you seen?

STU: It has been suggested he was the originator of the expression A New Deal.

GLENN: Okay. Progressive?

STU: I mean, I'm just reading a sentence here.

GLENN: I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure. I think this guy was a big FDR guy. And he wrote this book called The Road We are Traveling and it was written in 1942 and he said we're on this road and after the war is finished ‑‑ he wrote this book in 1942. After the war is finished, we're going to have to clear up this mystery. But what we are now is no longer, it's not socialism, it's not capitalism. He just called it in his book X. And he said, we'll have to define it later, but it's X. We don't know what to call it yet.

But there's some major characteristics, and it's replaced our system of free enterprise and it will all over the world. He said we could call it communism, we could call it fascism, we could call it state capitalism. We just don't know what it is.

Now, he said ‑‑ try this on for size. This is what it is. This is how you would describe it: A strong centralized government.

Would you say we have that?

STU: Check.

GLENN: An executive arm growing at the expense of the legislative and judicial arms.

STU: Yes.

GLENN: Got that? The control of banking, credit, and security exchanges by the government.

STU: Yeah. Jeez.

GLENN: The underwriting of employment through armaments or public works.

STU: Yeah, absolutely. Stimulus package and so much more.

GLENN: The underwriting of Social Security by the government.

STU: Mmm‑hmmm.

GLENN: The underwriting of food, housing, and medical care by the government. The use of deficit spending to than the these underwritings.

STU: We're 100% so far.

GLENN: The abandonment of gold in favor of managed currencies.

STU: Obviously.

PAT: Been there.

GLENN: The control of foreign trade by the government. The control of natural resources. The control of energy sources.

STU: Yep.

GLENN: The control of transportation. The control of agricultural production. The control of organized labor unions. The enlistment of young men and young women in youth corps devoted to health, discipline, community service, and ideologies consistent with those of the government authorities.

PAT: They're kind of working on that right now.

GLENN: Heavy taxation with special emphasis on the estates and incomes of the rich.

STU: (Laughing.) Is this ‑‑

GLENN: State control of communications and propaganda.

STU: This is like a mission statement for the Obama administration.

GLENN: May I? This book was not an indictment of it.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: It was saying "This is great." Remember this is the guy who coined the term The New Deal. This is the road we're traveling. Now, is it a coincidence? I'm sure it is. Is it a coincidence that anybody who has studied progressivism ‑‑ I mean, when I heard the name of this, this documentary, I mean, you were with me, Pat.

PAT: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: Immediately.

STU: Perked up right away.

GLENN: Wait a minute. I have that book. I had it wrong. I thought it was the Road We Traveled. The name of the book is The Road We're Traveling.

PAT: That makes so much sense because we were traveling that road then. Now we've traveled it.

GLENN: We've traveled it.

PAT: And now it's past tense. We're there. It's great.

GLENN: This is yet another ‑‑

PAT: It's amazing.

GLENN: Another knife in the back to anybody who doesn't know and a wink to anybody who does know the history. Everybody who ‑‑ anybody who is a Cass Sunstein, I mean, Cass Sunstein wanted this job because he's a fan of Edward Bernays. He knows. He salivated over this job. He couldn't wait. Those guys would absolutely know. I mean, remember when they were talking to us about Father Coughlin and they're calling me Father Coughlin and we're like, who the hell is Father Coughlin? They knew. They know these players. They know who Stuart Chase is. I really believe that whoever did this, they know exactly what they've done. They've said, "Yeah, yeah, it was X." They couldn't identify what it was. It's state capitalism.

See, we were trying to do all these things in 1942 and Stuart Chase says, "If we do it right... this is 1942: "If we do it right, if you get it right, you will not be able to turn this ship off of that course." Now the name of this movie is The Road We Traveled?

STU: Well, certainly by the standard they set up, they're definitely guilty. If you remember back in 2010, we did that rally, you know, Restoring Honor in Washington and they immediately accused us of stealing the speech date of Martin Luther King as if we had any idea.

GLENN: Exactly right.

STU: They immediately accused us of that. So by their standard clearly this has to be intentional.

GLENN: So who is Stuart Chase? Who's the guy who said he was going to change the free market enterprise, that this is state capitalism? Who was he? He was a Fabian Socialist, a member of the Fabian Society at Harvard, a friend of Walter Lippmann. Water Lippmann is the guy who every journalist in America has studied and hails as a hero. He was a eugenicist, a eugenics guy, he was a progressive, he was a member of the Woodrow Wilson administration.

STU: (Laughing.) Sometimes I feel like they do this stuff just to give you monologues.

GLENN: I mean, I ‑‑ I can't believe it.

PAT: That's amazing.

GLENN: That's amazing.

PAT: That's amazing. I mean, but that's what they do.

STU: So they were traveling it in 1942, this road, and now ‑‑

PAT: We've traveled it.

STU: ‑‑ we've finally traveled it.

PAT: Yeah, we've arrived.

GLENN: And he said the war is going to give us a chance to actually finish this and you won't be able to turn it off the course, you won't be able to turn it around. They did turn it around some ‑‑ somewhat. But now the question is can we turn it around now. The Road We've Traveled. The name of the book from 1942 is The Road We're Traveling. You decide. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, I'm sure it is.

Insider alert: Glenn’s audience EXPOSES the riots’ dark truth

Barbara Davidson / Contributor | Getty Images

Glenn asked for YOUR take on the Los Angeles anti-ICE riots, and YOU responded with a thunderous verdict. Your answers to our recent Glennbeck.com poll cut through the establishment’s haze, revealing a profound skepticism of their narrative.

The results are undeniable: 98% of you believe taxpayer-funded NGOs are bankrolling these riots, a bold rejection of the claim that these are grassroots protests. Meanwhile, 99% dismiss the mainstream media’s coverage as woefully inadequate—can the official story survive such resounding doubt? And 99% of you view the involvement of socialist and Islamist groups as a growing threat to national security, signaling alarm at what Glenn calls a coordinated “Color Revolution” lurking beneath the surface.

You also stand firmly with decisive action: 99% support President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell the chaos. These numbers defy the elite’s tired excuses and reflect a demand for truth and accountability. Are your tax dollars being weaponized to destabilize America? You’ve answered with conviction.

Your voice sends a powerful message to those who dismiss the unrest as mere “protests.” You spoke, and Glenn listened. Keep shaping the conversation at Glennbeck.com.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

EXPOSED: Your tax dollars FUND Marxist riots in LA

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

Protesters wore Che shirts, waved foreign flags, and chanted Marxist slogans — but corporate media still peddles the ‘spontaneous outrage’ narrative.

I sat in front of the television this weekend, watching the glittering spectacle of corporate media do what it does best: tell me not to believe my lying eyes.

According to the polished news anchors, what I was witnessing in Los Angeles was “mostly peaceful protests.” They said it with all the earnest gravitas of someone reading a bedtime story, while behind them the streets looked like a deleted scene from “Mad Max.” Federal agents dodged concrete slabs as if it were an Olympic sport. A man in a Che Guevara crop top tried to set a police car on fire. Dumpster fires lit the night sky like some sort of postapocalyptic luau.

If you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

But sure, it was peaceful. Tear gas clouds and Molotov cocktails are apparently the incense and candles of this new civic religion.

The media expects us to play along — to nod solemnly while cities burn and to call it “activism.”

Let’s call this what it is: delusion.

Another ‘peaceful’ riot

If the Titanic “mostly floated” and the Hindenburg “mostly flew,” then yes, the latest L.A. riots are “mostly peaceful.” But history tends to care about those tiny details at the end — like icebergs and explosions.

The coverage was full of phrases like “spontaneous,” “grassroots,” and “organic,” as if these protests materialized from thin air. But many of the signs and banners looked like they’d been run off at ComradesKinkos.com — crisp print jobs with slogans promoting socialism, communism, and various anti-American regimes. Palestinian flags waved beside banners from Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador. It was like someone looted a United Nations souvenir shop and turned it into a revolution starter pack.

And guess who funded it? You did.

According to at least one report, much of this so-called spontaneous rage fest was paid for with your tax dollars. Tens of millions of dollars from the Biden administration ensured your paycheck funded Trotsky cosplayers chucking firebombs at local coffee shops.

The same aging radicals from the 1970s — now armed with tenure, pensions, and book deals — are cheering from the sidelines, waxing poetic about how burning a squad car is “liberation.” These are the same folks who once wore tie-dye and flew to help guerrilla fighters and now applaud chaos under the banner of “progress.”

This is not progress. It is not protest. It’s certainly not justice or peace.

It’s an attempt to dismantle the American system — and if you dare say that out loud, you’re labeled a bigot, a fascist, or, worst of all, someone who notices reality.

And what sparked this taxpayer-funded riot? Enforcement against illegal immigrants — many of whom, according to official arrest records, are repeat violent offenders. These are not the “dreamers” or the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. These are criminals with long, violent rap sheets — allowed to remain free by a broken system that prioritizes ideology over public safety.

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg | Getty Images

This is what people are rioting over — not the mistreatment of the innocent, but the arrest of the guilty. And in California, that’s apparently a cause for outrage.

The average American, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, is supposed to worry they’ll be next. But unless you’re in the habit of assaulting people, smuggling, or firing guns into people’s homes, you probably don’t have much to fear.

Still, if you suggest that violent criminals should be deported or imprisoned, you’re painted as the extremist.

The left has lost it

This is what happens when a culture loses its grip on reality. We begin to call arson “art,” lawlessness “liberation,” and criminals “community members.” We burn the good and excuse the evil — all while the media insists it’s just “vibes.”

But it’s not just vibes. It’s violence, paid for by you, endorsed by your elected officials, and whitewashed by newsrooms with more concern for hair and lighting than for truth.

This isn’t activism. This is anarchism. And Democratic politicians are fueling the flame.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck's 'No King but Christ' merch: Will faith STOP the chaos?

On Saturday, June 14, 2025 (President Trump's 79th birthday), the "No Kings" protest—a noisy spectacle orchestrated by progressive heavyweights like Randi Weingarten and her union cronies—will take place in Washington, D.C.

Thousands will chant "no thrones, no crowns, no king," claiming to fend off authoritarianism and corruption.

But let’s cut through the noise. The protesters' grievances—rigged courts, deported citizens, slashed services—are a house of cards. Zero Americans have been deported, Federal services are still bloated, and if anyone is rigging the courts, it's the Left. So why rally now, especially with riots already flaring in L.A.?

Chaos isn’t a side effect here—it’s the plan.

This is not about liberty; it's a power grab dressed up as resistance. The "No Kings" crowd wants you to buy their script: government’s the enemy—unless they’re the ones running it. It's the identical script from 2020: same groups, same tactics, same goal, different name.

But Glenn is flipping the script. He's dropping a new "No Kings but Christ" merch line, just in time for the protest. Merch that proclaims one truth: no earthly ruler owns us; only Christ does. It’s a bold, faith-rooted rejection of this secular circus.

Why should you care? Because this won’t just be a rally—it’ll be a symptom. Distrust in institutions is sky-high, and rightly so, but the "No Kings" answer is a hollow shout into the void. Glenn’s merch begs the question: if you’re ditching kings, who’s really in charge? Get yours and wear the answer proudly.

Truth unleashed: 95% say media’s excuses for anti-Semitism are a LIE

ELI IMADALI / Contributor | Getty Images

Glenn asked for YOUR take on the rising tide of anti-Semitism, and you delivered. After the Boulder attack, you made it clear: this isn’t just a news story—it’s a crisis the elites are dodging.

Your verdict is unmistakable: 96% of you see anti-Semitism as a growing threat in the U.S., brushing aside the establishment’s weak excuses. The spin does not fool you—95% say the media is deliberately downplaying the issue, hiding a cultural rot that’s all too real. And the government’s response? A whopping 95% of you call it a disgraceful failure, leaving communities exposed.

Your voices shatter the silence. Why should we trust narratives that dismiss your concerns? With 97% of you warning that anti-Semitism will surge in the years ahead, you’re demanding action and accountability. This is your stand for truth.

You spoke, and Glenn listened. Your bold response sends a message to those who’d rather ignore the problem. Keep raising your voice at Glennbeck.com—your input drives the fight for justice. Take part in the next poll and continue shaping the conversation.