David Horowitz on 'Glenn Beck'

This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," June 8, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GLENN BECK, HOST: We've been talking on this program about ACORN and its alliance with very wealthy people. And I don't — you know, maybe they're Democrats. Maybe they're Republicans, I don't know. I don't know what the real deal is.

I know the mainstream media is not reporting the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, that they are benefiting from the Democrats and the Republicans.

FrontPage magazine editor, David Horowitz, is a former member of the radical left. He helped found the New Left movement of the 1960s, author of the autobiography, "Radical Son."

David, I have to tell you, it is absolutely amazing. I said about this wall over here just about three weeks ago, I said I need to put a chart up.

DAVID HOROWITZ, "RADICAL SON" AUTHOR: That's right.

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BECK: And I said, "All of these names are here, all of these organizations that are loosely connected." I said, "I think, they're all connected." And I said, "We need to find out who can connect all these." I find the Web site — make the connections — no...

HOROWITZ: DiscoverTheNetworks.

BECK: Geez, I always forget: DiscoverTheNetworks.org. And you've already done all of this. And it's amazing how all of the — it's the same players in all of these little organizations.

Let's start with ACORN. What's the real story behind ACORN that the media keeps getting wrong?

HOROWITZ: At the beginning, ACORN was a national welfare rights organization. It was formed by radicals who wanted to recruit people on to the welfare rolls to bankrupt the welfare system — because as radicals, they want revolutionary change. And welfare, done right, would have just been a helping hand to people who have fallen on bad times.

BECK: Right.

HOROWITZ: So, their agenda is always to create a maximal confrontation.

BECK: Do you — do you think that — because, I mean, I watch the — I watch what we're doing with printing money. I see what's happening with the bonds. I mean, none of this makes sense.

HOROWITZ: They don't...

BECK: I hear people say all the time, it doesn't make sense.

HOROWITZ: They don't respect the system. We were against — in the '60s, it was going up against the system. So, whatever the system is, like, you know, the senior bondholders versus the junior, they don't respect that. And...

BECK: Do you believe there are people — without naming names or pointing fingers to anybody, I mean, unless you know somebody — but do you think there are actually people that would like to see this have a catastrophic collapse to rebuild it?

HOROWITZ: Oh, absolutely. Catastrophe is an opportunity. I mean, Rahm Emanuel said that.

BECK: Yes. But there's a difference between saying taking an emergency and, you know, making the best out of it, get things done that you couldn't, and orchestrating — like the radicals did in the '60s, get everybody on the welfare rolls and collapse it.

HOROWITZ: Yes, that's true. I mean, they are the more radical wing, but, you — in the lead-up, you are talking about progressives. And progressives have this delusion that you can change the world. You know, they differ as to how long it's going to take, and how radical your measures can be, but these are pretty radical measures.

Let's not forget that Obama was the lead attorney for ACORN, and that the case that he took to the courts was on motor, you know, voter registration.

BECK: Right.

HOROWITZ: And that — people who pushed that are not concerned about voter fraud, because "motor voter" is an open invitation to voter fraud.

What they're concerned about is exactly what's happened in this crisis: Getting enough power, mobilizing enough power so you can make a dramatic change.

BECK: I think ACORN is going to collapse on its own weight eventually. I think that...

HOROWITZ: I hope so.

BECK: I hope so, too. I just think there's going to be enough to make it collapse. If it collapses, though — from what I understand from your Web site and our own homework — that it doesn't matter, really — I mean, it does, it slows them down, but the same people will just pop up under another name.

HOROWITZ: Yes, but they'll be slowed and stopped in what they're doing now and that's important.

You know, politics is an ongoing battle. People — right now, a lot of conservatives are "gloom and doomers" in saying they're going to change everything and we won't be able to change it back. Oh, yes, we will.

You cannot dramatically change this country the way European countries were changed. I don't believe it for a second. We all — we had the frontier. We had — Americans are individualists in a way that Europeans are not and will not be pushed around. They will go a certain way with you and but then it's going to snap back.

BECK: David, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

HOROWITZ: Thank you.

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