Last Night, I Watched Hannity Instead of The Daily Show

This is my analysis and observations of Hannity’s monologue at CPAC, written because a Facebook friend from high school asked for my thoughts.

Sean Hannity, a Conservative Libertarian media spokesperson, explained at CPAC that Trump and his supporters are fighting a four-front war against the establishment media, establishment Republicans, Democrats and the “Snowflake Brigade.” Pontificating like a Southern Baptist preacher putting the fear of God into his congregation, he asks how many of the seemingly all-white crowd are “irredeemable deplorable Americans”. The crowd cheers. Then Hannity goes on to ask how many in the audience “cling to your god, your guns, your bible, and religion”. During the second minute of his 15 minute sermon, Hannity asks how many are “thankful to the high heavens Barack Hussein Obama is gone” and if they think “the media is so fundamentally dishonest and corrupt”. The crowd cheers again.

Real news is an ideal. We can attempt to destroy fake news, the so-called establishment media, but we will have to keep a close eye on who and what replaces it. Without the ability to be everywhere all the time to witness everything unfold before our very eyes, historic accounts, C-Span, and — gasp! — even Facebook Live may very well have to suffice.

Americans are continuously being spoon fed the latest opinion in the form of video clips and sound blips bought and paid for by Billionaires as if we were watching a sugar cereal commercial during our Saturday morning cartoons. I think that the failed education system in our country has led to to many US corporations, particularly in the high-tech sector, soliciting and employing their talent from and in other countries. Who can blame them? Few, if any, people are talking about the root cause of America’s problems. I boil it down to a lack of critical thinking in American citizens who are unwilling to work to form their own perspective.

Hannity rambles on in his speech about an acorn organizer and a dog catcher and then asks the audience to imagine what Trump would have said to the press had he been in office on 9/11. Then he brings up an interview from 2008 before announcing to the echo chamber, “We have an opportunity (to fix this country) but forces are working against us. You’ve got the Snowflake Brigade — paid protestors who don’t work like the rest of us — they go protest the protest. Then you’ve got the Democratic establishment — calling for impeachment because they are cry babies and whiners and they lost and they can’t admit it. Then we’ve got the media with all their corruption — that they basically declared war on President Trump and they want to do everything they can do to hurt his opportunity to help this country.” He then calls for Republicans that are “weak, feckless, and spineless” to get off their ass and do their job.

Who are those Republicans to whom Hannity makes reference? Do they have names? What is their job, exactly? Is it to think like him — a self-described Conservative Libertarian? Does Hannity read or hear what the Snowflakes have to say? Does he view ANY of them as underpaid activists? I think Hannity and others are afraid or maybe just ignorant of the truths that these so-called Snowflakes hold dear — just like I think some Snowflakes fear the so-called truths that religious Conservatives clinging to their bibles and guns closely hold dear.

I would venture to guess that most straight, White, American-born Christians don’t know what it is like to have their basic human rights threatened or challenged. But when their gun rights are threatened, Hell breaks loose. What on Earth would they do if their religious rights were threatened? On that note, if people thank God or the heavens for Obama leaving office, why don’t they blame God or Hell for him being put into office? Why do the righteous always seem to blame the oppressed?

Hannity then goes on to cite some statistics that gave me pause with rebuttals:

• “95 million fellow Americans out of labor force — lowest since 1970s.” This chart and article comes in handy to discern its truthfulness:

• “50 million people on food stamps — 13 million more than when Barack Obama became President.” Trump said in a July 21, 2016 speech that “Forty-three million Americans are on food stamps.” Politifact rated Trump’s claim as true. The number of people as of November 2016 on SNAP, according to the USDA, is closer to 45 million. It was approximately 32 million when Obama took office in 2009.
• “50 million total Americans living in poverty — 8 million more since Obama was President.” Is it Obama’s fault that poverty has Grown?
• “Worst recovery since 1940s .” Partially accurate. It depends on what you measure. Looking at GDP growth, that is correct. Looking at the employment picture, the 2001 recovery was worse.
• “Lowest home ownership rate in 51 years.” Mostly true. Some of the decline; however, may be due to lifestyle, and not economic, changes.
• “Obama never reached 3% GDP growth — only president to never reach this growth in one year of his presidency.” Mostly true.

Hannity picks back up with his rally cry to his CPAC audience saying, “We are all Conservative Libertarians here. What do we want as Conservatives?We won. Snowflakes lost. Its simple. We want to keep our country safe, secure…(its) not that hard. Is it really tough to vet people that are going to be guests coming into our house? Unlike the Left, I’m not willing to gamble with your life or the life of any other American.” Mr. Hannity, please read How Right-Wing Media Are Lying to Protect Trump’s Muslim Ban.

Hannity is correct when he says that “We have an estimated 8 million illegal immigrants.” What he does not say is that fewer than 1 million people came to the U.S. over the past decade from the seven countries from which most visitors are temporarily blocked.

Hannity uses fear tactics with his audience, similar to that of the War on Drugs ad campaign of the 1980s, when he says, “drugs poison kids”. He then talks about crimes like rape and murder. Clearly, Hannity has not watched The 13TH.

Hannity is right when he says that Obamacare didn’t save families $2500 per year, saying that he lied. In the 8 years Obama was President, healthcare costs went up $5400, not including 2016. I do hope that Trump’s yet-to-be-unveiled-plan offers better and more affordable options.

Hannity claims that companies want to meet with Trump because of free publicity. I disagree. There’s more to it. In fact, many companies don’t want to meet with him. Trump’s proposed 15% corporate tax rate will be one of the lowest in the world, down from one of the highest. Hannity says, “Building factories will let the workers have opportunities…the American dream.”

Hannity tells the audience that, “the lying corrupt media that never vetted Obama, that never told you the truth about Obama, the lying liberal media that never told you the truth about Hillary — how bad was the WikiLeaks revelations that showed a media colluding with the campaign of Hillary Clinton to try to undermine then candidate Donald Trump? It is the single most corrupt, revealing moment about media bias, disinformation, propaganda, distortion and outright lies that they’re willing to tell.”

Hannity breaks (before returning with Kellyann Conway) with four points:

• The media is against the President.
• Democrats are against the President.
• Freaky weird snowflakes are against the President.
• Weak Republicans are against the President.

Why should any of those groups you say Conservative Libertarians should be at war with care what you have to say, Hannity? Furthermore, why do you seem to be threatened by what they think? Especially if you don’t seem to care what they think.