GLENN: Let's go to Brian in Albany. Hello, Brian, you are on the Glenn Beck program.
CALLER: Hi, Glenn, how are you?
GLENN: Very good.
CALLER: I have a couple of thoughts for you this morning. First off, I'm Jewish and I'm shocked at how many friends I lost in 2008 because I refused to vote for Barack Obama and how many, how many of them have yet to come back and say "I was wrong." It's scary and how I completely lost touch with my rabbi over it just because he was just so in the tank for Obama and didn't even bother hiding it. It was kind of frightening. You know, as a recovering progressive, it's been a process trying to stay the course.
GLENN: Tell me, Brian, hell are you doing? What step are you on, on recovering progressive?
CALLER: I'm on Step 4 but, you know, every now and then I have a crisis, I have to call my sponsor who's my wife.
GLENN: Yes.
CALLER: And she has to talk me back down and keep me on the straight and narrow.
GLENN: So you are still making a list of all of the things that you've done wrong as a progressive?
CALLER: Yes.
GLENN: Yes.
CALLER: Yes, that's right.
GLENN: Well, you are kind of doing Step 5. Here you are admitting to the world. If you'd like to complete Step 5 at any time when you are done with 4, you come on the program and you can bury your soul as a recovering progressive.
CALLER: Well, thank you. And, you know, one of the things I did wrong, in college I was a history major and my Senior thesis was on Woodrow Wilson.
GLENN: Ooph.
CALLER: And how terrible it was that the U.S. Senate wouldn't ratify the Treaty of Versailles and just how —
GLENN: Oh, gosh.
CALLER: — his thoughts on internationalism were so great.
GLENN: Brian, Brian, Brian, this is — you are a case study for me. I would like to just probe and experiment on you for a while. What turned you?
CALLER: Well, first I got a — I grew up and got a job and I had to start looking at the real world. But a lot of it, honestly my wife kept saying to me, you don't understand, you don't understand. And probably about a year and a half ago, you know, I started to turn.
GLENN: Now, wait. Was your wife progressive, too?
CALLER: No. No, no.
GLENN: Okay.
CALLER: My wife's always been a conservative.
GLENN: How did you get together?
CALLER: Well, I'm not entirely sure why she put up with me back then, but I think she just knew that there was something in me she could change. I mean, like most wives she kind of figured there was something about me would change and, you know, she — I know this is a shock. She was right. She likes to hear when I say that.
GLENN: All women do.
CALLER: I know. But it really, you know, after the election I started, you know, saying, like, I can't believe people voted for this guy and I started listening to you and I was like, you know what? You know what? This makes a lot more sense to me. And, you know, it just, it took me time. It's probably taken me about a year and a half to really admit that I was wrong and come to terms with it, but it's —
GLENN: You know what? I tell you, Brian, I have so much respect for you. Anybody who will take something that they firmly believed and examine it, just doing that step is huge, to honestly examine it and say, well, let me look at the other side. For you to examine it and then admit I was on the wrong course is gigantic. I mean, kudos to you. Massive, massive kudos.
CALLER: Thank you. Well, kudos to you because you've turned me into a reader again.
GLENN: Hang on just a second. We've had him on long enough. They have traced the call. They are coming down to get Brian. It's a progressive that is turning! Quick, pick him up off the streets!
CALLER: You know, sometimes I wonder how far we are from that. I really do get scared sometimes and I'm reading Atlas —
PAT: They are not far. They are coming for you now.
CALLER: That's true.
GLENN: You are reading what now?
CALLER: "Atlas Shrugged" and I'm not very far in and I'm reading it and I'm like, this makes sense. Like, I can see, this looks too familiar.
GLENN: Yeah.
CALLER: You know, and it just —
GLENN: You know, it's amazing to me, Brian, that more people, especially in, you know, your situation being a Jew, more people are not just wide eyed. I mean, we've promised each other not to forget. And not only are we not forgetting, we're helping cover the truth and we're helping usher in globally new — or renewed vigor for these lies against Jews. It's incredible!
CALLER: It is. And like you said, how does Helen Thomas have a job today? I don't understand it.
GLENN: I have been watching the TV and there's only one network that continues to play the video of her.
CALLER: That's ABC, right? No, NBC? It's got to be one of those, right?
GLENN: Yeah, yeah.
CALLER: Yeah.
GLENN: It is truly remarkable. Can you imagine? I mean, this is the problem. Those kinds of comments are horrible. It doesn't matter if it is Pat Buchanan that would say it, if it was me that would say it, if it was Ronald Reagan that would say it. It doesn't matter. If those kinds of comments are said and it is something that you know is part of who they are, there's no excuse. There's just no excuse. It doesn't matter left or right. It's right or wrong.
CALLER: Well, and much like the president, you know, it's the spontaneous remarks that reveal somebody's true character. And that's exactly what we saw from Helen Thomas. That's what we see every time the president goes off of the TelePrompTer, you know.
GLENN: I would love to see — Brian, I thank you so much for your call and God bless ya.
CALLER: Thank you, Glenn. God bless you.
GLENN: You bet. Keep up the good work.