The parade has begun. Banners are waving and drums are pounding as marchers and floats move down the street. And to what do we owe this public celebration?
Why, it’s the sudden decline of Glenn Beck.
The Christian Science Monitor was at the head of this promenade, being the first to link his declining ratings of the past year to his increasingly bizarre behavior; among other things, he’s recently accused the AFL-CIO and other “leftist” groups of contributing the rise of global Islamic hegemony in the form of a new Caliphate. For the record, the last effective Sunni caliphate lost power over a thousand years ago, and the last Shiite caliphate collapsed in the 12th century. Perhaps it’s not surprising that Beck has lost over a million viewers in the last year as his rambling has begun to spiral into crazy land. Then again, many of his viewers believe President Obama was born in Kenya, so it’s hard to say.
The New York Times and The New Republic have extended the story, speculating that, gasp, Fox News might actually consider dumping Beck when his contract expires in December. Hardball negotiations or genuine 
concern now that some 300 sponsors have refused to advertise on Beck’s show? It’s hard to know just yet, but the speculation has caused enough of a stir that the story has even hopped the pond and been picked up by The Guardian.
Personally, I think Beck’s days are indeed numbered, not just at Fox News, but as an important national voice. Indeed, I am fairly confident that within a year or two or three, and certainly not more than five, he will be largely marginalized, destined to become a head-scratcher in some future edition of Trivial Pursuit.
Why? Because back during the Great Depression there was a guy a lot like Glenn Beck, but far more successful, and hardly anyone knows his name today.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to reintroduce you to Father Charles Coughlin.
Born in Canada in 1891, Coughlin grew up to become a Roman Catholic priest and head of the National Shrine of the Little Flower Church in Royal Oak, Michigan. He was also the pre-eminent right wing media star of his day, before ending up in oblivion. And the similarities between him and Beck are striking.
Each came from a Christian sect that was long persecuted in America, and only starting to gain mainstream 
acceptance during their lifetimes. Beck is a Mormon, and Coughlin actually began his radio career in response to a cross burning on the lawn of his Catholic church.
Each were originally centrist moderates as young men. Coughlin was a staunch supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, and Beck once got a letter of recommendation from Joe Lieberman.
Each initially gained fame through radio before parlaying that into successful publications and speaking engagements.
Each took on an increasingly populist tone, railing against abstract forces that were defiling America.
Each drifted to the far right; Coughlin turned on FDR and eventually became an apologist for Hitler and Mussolini during the run-up to WWII.
Finally, each began to display signs of becoming a bit unhinged, with a predilection for paranoia about other religious groups. Beck’s blather about a global Islamic conspiracy dovetails nicely with Coughlin’s more traditional rants about global Jewish conspiracy; he blamed Jewish bankers for everything from the Russian Revolution to the Great Depression.
Although there is one important difference between the two: Coughlin makes Beck look like a small timer. 
Coughlin founded his own radio network to create an early form of syndication and reach millions of Americans. How many millions? We don’t know for sure, but some historians estimate that at Coughlin’s peak in the early 1930s, upwards of one-third of the nation listened to his most popular broadcasts.
I repeat: one-third of the nation. Today, that would be over a hundred million people.
So why haven’t you heard of Father Coughlin, or if you have, perhaps know little of him?
By the late 1930s, Father Charles had already greatly displeased the Catholic hierarchy, from the Vatican on down, though he retained the support of the Archbishop of Detroit, which allowed him to keep going. And now with World War II approaching, Coughlin and others such as Charles Lindbergh loudly advocated American neutrality. But with the mobilization of the war effort came the expansion of the federal powers. New regulations on broadcasters were used to clamp down on Coughlin’s air time, and the U.S. Post Office eventually refused to carry his newspaper Social Justice.
However, government obstacles do not fully explain Coughlin’s decline. With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the already declining popularity of non-interventionists such as Coughlin sank to new lows. Those who opposed America’s role in the war were now commonly seen as unpatriotic and they became the target of 
popular hostility. Betrayed by the fascists and not wanting to antagonize the United States, in 1942 the Vatican finally exerted sufficient pressure on the Archbishop of Detroit to silence an already greatly diminished Father Coughlin. On May Day of that year, the church ordered him to stop his politicking and restrict his activities to working as a parish priest, which he did until retiring in 1966.
Though he remained crazy until the end, continuing to write pamphlets that blamed Jews for communism, even as the Cold War was ending.
Glenn Beck, your future awaits.