Tuesday, January 29, 2008

An open letter to Sean Hannity

Dear Sean,

Over the years I've been a regular listener to the Sean Hannity show on 1360am in Kalamazoo. I've supported the causes you've supported such as your Freedom concerts to raise money for the children of slain veterans and others. I've agreed with you on most of your positions, at least the ones that remain true to conservative values.

When you came out in support of George Allen for president, I wholeheartedly agreed that he would have been the only Reagan-esque conservative in the group. He dropped out and your support seemed to swing to Rudy Giuliani, someone that would be hard pressed to be called a moderate, much less a conservative. I stuck with you, despite our disagreement there. You continued to call for conservatives to rally around Rudy with your interviews with him to point out his "law and order" values, except when it came to gun control, social values, and other aspects of his personality that you failed to address. You regularly make ridiculous statements in support of your opinions that I tend to overlook because I generally agree with you on most things.

However, yesterday(1/28/2008) was the last straw. You had a caller on the air who was questioning the opinions of a conservative radio host and asked you what you thought. Additionally, he asked you about Ron Paul. You promptly went on a rant about Ron Paul and dismissed all of his supporters as "nuts". I believe your quote was something along the lines of "Listen, if you are a Ron Paul supporter, generally speaking, you are a nut".

Really? A "nut"? A nut because I believe in the constitution? A nut because I believe that under the president I voted for twice, as well as the Republican congress our government grew at a rate comparative to Lyndon B. Johnson's welfare state known as the 'Great Society'? A nut because I believe that the President should actually wield his veto power on occasion and not just as a political weapon but also when he sees more pork than substance in a bill? Am I a nut because I believe in state's rights and believe in the power of the individual rather than the government? Am I a nut because I believe that the federal government has grown vastly out of control and that Ron Paul is the only candidate that will actually fight to change that? I guarantee that Rudy won't. Mitt won't. McCain won't. None of them will work against the power structures that are already in place.

You even mention in your book, Deliver us from Evil, the quote that George Washington used in his farewell address warning America against "entangling alliances" in an effort to persuade people to not support the Democrats and their desire to use the UN (Useless Nations) for support in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet you can't see the logic in Ron Paul's position to get out of the UN and begin to take care of things at home instead of abroad?

Honestly, I my patience with your show was growing thin and I'd already heard pretty much all your show has to offer: "3 hours a day, that's all we ask", "make the Bush tax cuts permanent"-(which, by the way, Paul supports), "Stop Hillary Express", "Amnesty yada yada" -(again, which Paul opposes). If you truly ARE a conservative, you will stop with the bias against Ron Paul and begin to LISTEN and READ his opinions. For the most part, you will find that his stance on damn near everything important to America is pretty close to yours.

Speaking of your general ignorance on Paul's positions and your bias against him, I notice on your site today that the poll asking people who they want to win in FL only had three entries. Nice of you to leave Paul off of that and guarantee that your ignorance will continue as far as his grassroots support is concerned.

Sean, don't try to cast this as a liberal masquerading as a upset listener. I'm not a nut, liberal, or even conspiracy theorist. I am a combat veteran who loves his country more than anyone could ever know and am sick of the establishment candidates on both sides running it like it's their own damn piggy bank. By the way, a large amount of Paul's support, both canvassing and financial, is from active duty military. It's too bad that you can't lend a voice of reason to the ongoing bias against Paul, but it sounds like you've already closed your mind. I'm even willing to bet that if you went out and answered a set of questions that asked your opinion on various subjects, you'd find that you agreed with Ron Paul a majority of the time. Just asking for you to be intellectually honest, something that you like to ask people to do on your show.

For America,

Big Johnson

No comments: