The Dangerous Duplicity of Sandy Beach

By Jul Thompson
November 15, 2011

I began listening to Sandy Beach around the tender age of six. I remember sitting at the kitchen breakfast counter munching on a snack my mother prepared for me, and hearing her laugh while listening to WKBW Radio as she cleaned up.  I’m certain it wasn’t easy raising me and my eight siblings, who all had very different personalities. So while my Mum is a solid rock of love, provision and comfort, she tended to be a little solemn at times, and her spontaneous bursts of laughter at Sandy’s clever anecdotes always warmed my heart.

I am not a great fan of talk radio, only because while reading or writing, it’s difficult to think and think at the same time, and I prefer music with my chores. But I listen enough to have become disenchanted by the mixed messaging of Sandy Beach. Certainly, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and Sandy has earned the right to blat out whatever pops into his silly head for entertainment value, if for nothing else. But the inconsistencies are becoming more and more apparent, and quite frankly dangerous.

It was dangerous when he freely used his forum to promote the goodness of same-sex marriage, apparently completely oblivious to the absolutely devastating affect the blatant insertion of government into the church is going to have on our constitutional protections, our individual liberties, our educational system, our culture, our communities, our businesses, our religious institutions and our economy. It is inconsistent with his long history of decrying the habit of politicians of saying one thing and doing another — as in the case of Senator Mark Grisanti, who assured his hard-working campaign volunteers he was “unalterably opposed to same-sex marriage,” then upon entering office, promptly voted in favor of it.  Mark, in Sandy’s opinion, can do no wrong.

It was dangerous when he unrelentingly attacked Tea Party favorite Jane Corwin, who should have been a shoe-in for the Special Election in NY-26. Based on nothing of substance, he called her a prissy little rich girl living on her Daddy’s money, ignoring the hard work she has done throughout her life, and using class warfare to gain support for liberal Democrat Kathy Hochul, who he is obviously enamored with. She vowed to be her own woman who will vote independently. Yet upon entering office, Hochul instantly hopped on board the Obamacare bandwagon and the hopeful passage of the bogus Obama Jobs Bill without missing a beat. No surprises there.

Now Sandy has helped set Erie County on a very dangerous path of fiscal instability as a result of his constant criticisms and the unseating of County Executive Chris Collins, evidently because his friend Danny’s son lost his job under Collins’ cost-cutting measures. It is a supreme injustice that Collins, who brought us from an enormous deficit to a $70 million surplus, by consolidating and reducing bloated government bureaucracy, has been defeated by Mark Poloncarz, who has assured us he intends to undo all of Collins’ tremendous achievements.

Maybe Sandy doesn’t give a whit, because he lives in Niagara County. But his own words should convict him of his intellectual dishonesty:

“My greatest fear is that we will miss an obvious opportunity to defeat President Obama because of the in-fighting within the Tea Party movement. While preening and posing for the great unwashed, a divided Tea Party is a defeated Tea Party. While strutting around like Peacocks..the President is raising a Billion dollars and has a core backing that would vote for him under any,and all, circumstances……quit trying to take credit for everything including the discovery of fire,and the invention of the wheel..blend into the movement instead of trying to prove that you started it with the sheer magnitude of your very special being.”

The praise of Grisanti’s corruption and the public assaults on Corwin and Collins clearly indicate where Sandy’s loyalties lie. So why would he say that he fears an Obama victory? And unless he’s referring to the 3rd-party-spoiler-Jack Davis faction as “Peacocks,” that erroneously named “Tea Party” who have also criticized Corwin and Collins, I have to wonder who he is talking about. In all our associated Reform Groups in the Western New York area and across the State, virtually no one fits that billet. We have many people who sacrifice vast amounts of time without pay, respite or recognition to bring about badly needed reform, only to be sabotaged by people pretending to care about the greater good. We have tried on occasion to correct the myths clearly made to discredit us, but we know of very little in-fighting, because we choose to ignore them. If he is referring to Rus Thompson, then Sandy’s confusion is bordering on malignancy. Rus is TEANewYork’s official spokesman, and it necessitates a public presence with the media. That’s his JOB. And neither Rus nor any of us have ever claimed to be the head of the Tea Party Movement.

Liberal Talk Radio fails every time it’s tried, and no amount of double-talk, persuasion or nice-sounding, hostile government takeovers like The Fairness Doctrine will change that. Sandy should take the knee-jerk and personal out of his politics, talk about the weather, current events and recipes, or retire. I think even my sensible Libertarian mother would agree.