The movement's ideology originates from a combination of Robert Welch's John Birch Society and W. Cleon Skousen's bizarre writings. And neither man was notably sane. They were each a strange brew of ideologue, conspiracy-theorist, and madman.
How paranoid was Welch? He saw Communist "goings on" everywhere; he even accused President Eisenhower of being a shadow-Communist. And just bizarre was Skousen? The Mormon journal Dialogue once wrote that Skousen was guilty of "inventing fantastic ideas and making inferences that go far beyond the bounds of honest commentary." He clearly was not a man grounded in reality.
Both men were loons, but their fringe beliefs were not allowed to enter the mainstream. William F. Buckley (come back!), then the leading conservative thinker, would have none of their conspiracy theory peddling and dismissed them both. But now, with the Rise of Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance, it seems that the crazier the theory, the more likely it is to enter the mainstream and be given credence; and that's just plain dumb.
Giving the "out there" theories of Welch and Skousen any credibility diminishes the credibility of all political thought; conflating liberalism with totalitarianism isn't a mistake, it's sad, sorry, and just plain wrong. Because of Beck's deliberately misleading and factually incorrect (or completely lacking) ramblings, conspiracies that were once left in the shadows of the right have been brought out into the sunlight and given an unfortunate form of legitimacy. It's frustrating, infuriating, and I want it to stop.
So for reason's sake, please stop listening to Glenn Beck, he's just making you look bad.
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