Bob Herbert is almost always Spot-On (IMHO), but with this rhetorical question he elicits from me a response he's not going to like.

Yeah, I think Beck is probably more representative of the people of our nation today than Lincoln & King were. *sigh* The latter two still represent the most-noble ideals of the better people of this country, sure, but "noble", "ideals", and "better" all imply something of a minority quality. I do not find this assumption of mine to be any more pleasing than I do Mr. Beck's ignorant & bigoted rants, but I cannot escape it.