I really have no words for this. I mean, I have a lot of words for it, but I just don’t know where to start or how to say it. Last Wednesday, Sean Hannity told Democrats who were listening to his radio show to just stay home and not vote on election day. Can you believe that? It isn’t bad enough that the Democrats have continually rolled over and let the GOP steal this government, erode the civil rights of every American, and get us into a war with lies about WMD. Now Hannity wants the PEOPLE to roll over. He claims we’re not informed. He claims that the party has abandoned us. Well, the latter is certainly true to an extent, but when your party doesn’t listen to you the answer is not to give up, the answer is to fight to get the party back to what it once was — something the Republicans can’t seem to do. You want to talk about a party leaving you? Whatever happened to the Goldwater Republican? What would Goldwater have thought about the GOP grandstanding on the Terri Schiavo case? This is what the Republicans have become, folks. The GOP now stands for Big Brother. It stands for Big Government. It stands for intervention in your personal lives and personal decisions. It stands for tax cuts for the wealthy. It stands for raiding the Treasury. It stands for promoting fear and uncertainty in the world. Are these the tenets of the traditional Republican? I think not. Even now, there is a military buildup occurring opposite Iran. Is this provocation of the highest order? What is this leading up to? Are we trying to get Iran to attack one of our ships so that we can react in so-called “self-defense?” Is this Karl Rove’s October Surprise?
And just a sidenote about being uninformed — Sean, you might be familiar with this study conducted by the Program on International Policy (PIPA) at the University of Maryland and Knowledge Networks, which shows that those viewers who get their news from FOX News are significantly more likely to be misinformed about current events than viewers of other networks. The study suggests that if you want to be up to speed on the world and current events, you should watch PBS. You might want to look into that, Sean. Apparently, your viewers are the most misinformed viewers in the United States. I guess that says a lot about what you’re feeding them, right?
Hannity is just saying it like it is. He thinks the Democrats will win in November, so he’s begging us Democrats to stay home and not vote. There’s no other way he thinks he can win at this point. I’m not so sure. There are still two weeks to go, and Rove’s promised October Surprise has not manifested itself yet. Not only that, but I’m not sure that America is ready for its own recovery. I have this shaky feeling that people are going to do exactly what some right-wing talking heads have supposed — pull the GOP levers because of fear. We live in the scariest times since I was a child when we were always told about the evil Soviet Union who had enough nuclear warheads to cover every inch of the United States in mushroom clouds. This administration will stop at nothing to stay in power, and massive global destabilization is just one of its tools. People used to vote their pocketbook. Now, they vote their nightmares, and the Bush administration has been very effective in promoting fear throughout the world. When people are so frightened and struggling to make ends meet, are they going to take a chance on something new? I mean, it could get worse, right? And the right-wingers are right there on the radio and the talk shows, speaking to the uninformed and misinformed, feeding them false information and creating Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD). I know the polls say the Democrats are going to have a very good November, but I’m not sure. As I have written about before, Diebold still could be a big player in the upcoming election. Fear is another big player.
And then there’s Hannity.
“Your candidates have absolutely no ideas how to win the war on terrorism. The only ideas that they espouse are ways to undermine the troops in harm’s way and undermine their commander in chief while they’re at war. Your candidates have no idea how to keep this economy strong. They have no ideas except more tax-and-spend policies and rescinding the tax cuts that every American family has benefited from. They have no idea how to protect the border — only solution they have there is to give us amnesty.”
Let’s talk about amnesty for a moment. What is Hannity going to say when the United States finally agrees to attempt to broker some kind of peace deal in Iraq between the Sunnis and the Shiites? Amnesty is a word that Hannity is going to hear a lot when that happens. Amnesty will be given for those who have killed American soldiers. In fact, it’s already being offered to the Sunnis. How’s that for “staying the course?” So what do you say, Hannity? I guess giving amnesty to people who are already living here, working here, and contributing to our economy is much much worse than offering amnesty to insurgents who have killed American troops?
Whatever may happen on November 7th, we’re not going to stay home, Sean. We’re going to come out in droves. It may not make a bit of difference, but we have to try. Your guys have had six years in power, Sean, and how different is the world since the year 2000? How much scarier has the world become? How much more difficult has it been on American families? How much have corporations netted while American families suffered? How many of our children’s lives have you put on the line for your own greed? I’m not just talking about the occupation in Iraq, I’m talking about withdrawal from Kyoto. I’m talking about your “right to a high standard of living” that’s killing the planet. How many people with serious medical emergencies have had to go into bankruptcy because of their illnesses, even when they were insured when they first became sick? And when they did that, they found out about the new laws that you folks passed to make sure they couldn’t get a fresh start if and when they finally either managed to control their illness or got well? What about having the energy companies set the energy policies for the country that have led us to become even more dependent on foreign oil?
Sean, there were plenty of chances for this Congress, this (p)Resident to do the right thing — to really work to make this country a better place for everyone, and you all failed miserably. Will the Democrats do any better? Absolutely. Will they be shining examples of hope and ethics? I doubt it. But they will make sure that we at least try to foster some sense of community with the rest of the world instead of provoking it, and that alone will ensure that we turn off the path of extinction through arrogant imperialism. There are plenty of examples throughout history of empires that thought they could not be brought down. I know you’re not a student of history, Sean, and I know you never even finished college, but you might want to take a look at how much we’re actually in debt to other nations, and then look at the state of our military right now. And then you just might want to vote Democrat on Election Day. Unless you decide to stay home.