Reading right-wing propaganda - so you don't have to!
Yes, just as I am apparently on Newt Gingrich's mailing list, I am on Sean Hannity's as well. And it will surprise none of you that Sean has lately become a shill for the Heritage Foundation, that collection of allegedly deep thinkers that spend their time sitting around in Washington, thinking of ways to scare us witless with their shrill cries about how liberals plan to, well, disastrously wreck America. Yes, they actually say that. Read on (unless you're afraid your lunch will violently exit your esophagus).
Sean greets me as "Dear American Fellow." So far, so good. I can definitely state that I am an American, and a fellow.
Next:
With the government in Washington wholly controlled by liberals, do you think conservative members of Congress have what it takes to block their disastrous policies?
Fortunately, I think the answer is no. When the conservatives in Congress are so ludicrously demented that they hold press conferences denouncing the threat to America from Muslim interns (see CAIR), they ain't got much to work with. On the other hand, though, the DEMOCRATS certainly have what it takes to defeat their own policies. Exhibit A: Senator Harry "There-aren't-enough-votes-in-the-Senate-for-the-public-option!" Reid. But I digress.
Interestingly enough, Sean also thinks the answer is 'No.' He writes: "If you're like the listeners to my radio show, your answer is an emphatic 'No'!" Now, I personally don't place much faith in the political judgment of regular Sean Hannity listeners. But it's encouraging to know that they are so discouraged.
But wait! Sean has the answer! The real conservatives, those who can defend you against terrible things like the rule of law, access to health care, and non-fossil-fuel energy sources, are...the Heritage Foundation!
You may have heard me talking about Heritage on my radio show, because I constantly use their reports to get the best facts, figures, and arguments to promote conservative ideas and shoot down leftist ones.
Well, that certainly explains a lot. Because, you see:
Heritage has had remarkable success. Their big book of policy recommendations became the Bible of the Reagan Administration.
Yes, a lot of things are becoming clearer. Conservatives haven't been reading the, you know, ACTUAL Bible - they've been reading Heritage Foundation tracts. I guess that's how they missed all that communofascist hippie-pinko-brownshirt stuff about 'giving everything you have to the poor' and how the early church were ACTUAL communists who 'had everything in common' and so on.
In any case, should readers be insufficiently scared of President Obama, gays, and brown-skinned immigrants to immediately donate, Sean eagerly takes on the task of scaring them out of their few remaining wits:
With President Barack Obama in the White House, more leftist plans are coming at us thick and fast, and Heritage is stretching its resources to fight them. Just a few examples:
-the government taking over more and more of the economy;
-measures designed to shut down talk radio and other conservative media;
-the threat to nationalize our health care system, so that we can experience the same kind of shortages and rationing that Canadians are accustomed to.
Now of course Sean is lying repeatedly here, as he must know full well that there are no efforts to 'shut down' talk radio, and that the health care reform plans are about as far from 'nationalization' as you can get, and...well, so it goes. Needless to say, though, many of the actual conservatives reading his letter will be able to recite all this chapter and verse, and actually believe it too, and no facts or logic are capable of persuading them otherwise.
Sean follows with his pitch for me to join Heritage, which I can do at the basic $25 level, or go all the way up to $1000, which buys me membership in the President's Club, which has the nifty added benefit of invitations to President's Club meetings where past speakers have included Cheney, Limbaugh, and Hannity. Personally I'd rather crawl on my knees through shards of broken glass, but that's just me. Sean's final scare:
...just think of all the promises and threats the left has made - on national security, the economy, free speech, health care, immigration, the culture, and many other issues - measures that will make our lives worse and hurt America for many years to come.
Dear God. "Make our lives worse"?? "Hurt America"??
Sean Hannity: Pretending the last 8 years really didn't happen. Pretending that conservatives weren't in charge of everything. Sleepwalking through history.