Hannity's America

by shamanic

I was traveling in Michigan for the last several days, visiting with relatives and seeing the ancestral family stomping grounds for my grandmother's memorial service. One evening, while I ironed clothes for the service the next morning, I put the hotel television on Fox News for background noise. "Hannity's America" was on, and let me tell you: in Hannity's America, it's perfectly acceptable for millionaire talking head ideologues to stand in judgment of other Americans' patriotism.

I found Hannity's America to be a little bit lacking in good will. He certainly was sure that the majority party in Congress, and the party that approximately half of all Americans call their political home or generally support, hates America. In screed after screed, this Democrat or that Democrat, or Democrats in general had an anti-American agenda.

I thought, since I have my little soapbox here in the blogosphere, that I might take a minute to explain a few things to Mr. Hannity and the denizens of his always outraged America.

First, Democrats support a strong America with a strong economy that provides every American the opportunity to achieve and advance based on his or her ability. We support a strong, free, public education system so that America's young people will have the skills to adapt and excel, both in business and as citizens of our nation. We believe in America not just as a military or economic force, but as a moral force in the world, and support policies that build up our moral leadership and oppose policies that break it down. And we believe that Americans can disagree on policy matters and still have the right to sit at the table of public dialog and express their views.

But we don't believe in demagoguery and baseless, frothy-mouthed attack pieces calling Americans' patriotism into question. So I'll end with this: I don't believe that Sean Hannity hates America, but I do believe that he supports stupid policies that make America less of a good place to live, and the world less united, less secure, and less free.

And that's it for... shamanic's America.