Sean Hannity's tour

I had the privilege last night to hear the popular Conservative commentator Sean Hannity here in San Diego. He spoke at the Symphony hall, and was sponsored by the local radio station, 760 KFMB. I had a good friend who won two VIP tickets from a radio contest, and I found myself with my friend in the front row.

Overall, I had a good time, as I did last time he came to town (this is the second time I’ve been to a Sean Hannity speech). We arrived at the place at 5:30pm. Even though it was one and half hours early, there was not a small crowd of people there. I must say, standing in a crowded line for over an hour with nothing to do but study the grain of wooden wall panels is rather dull. We were allowed into the sanctuary at 7:05pm, and shortly afterward came Sean Hannity. Some of his speech was stand-up comedy, but he got into serious issues aggressively. Sean is an entertaining speaker, even when he is talking seriously.

Here are some of my notes from what he said. I have my own comments in brackets [ ]. I do not necessarily agree with everything he said, nor necessarily disagree, but here it is:

Sean believes the liberal Democratic party is imploding. Their loud, radical rhetoric is increasingly shrill, showing desperation. In the opinion of most Americans, the quality and esteem of their representatives (Michael Moore, Al Franken, and Rev. Jesse Jackson for example) is poor. He has great hope for the Conservative movement, and for the accomplishments to be.
[I, personally, am still in doubt who will ultimately prevail. America will either become thoroughly morally deviant and anti-Christian, or we will rise to a Biblical, moral culture. While Political Conservatism and Christianity are not the same, it would be fair to say that if America becomes more conservative, a Christian revival will accompany it; in fact, it is likely that a Christian revival would lead a politically conservative movement, since the Conservatism is based in traditional American values, which has Judeo-Christian standards.]

He said he strongly loves and respects the President, and praised him for his work in the War on Terror. However, Sean, (noting to the audience that he is a conservative first, and Republican second, and that conservatives should think rather than blindly follow and agree with everything a Republican leaders does or says), laid out three criticisms of President Bush. 1) he does not control the border, 2) he is not vetoing spending bills enough, and 3) he doesn’t communicate to Americans enough. [These are my own main criticisms of the President as well.]

Sean noted the progress Republicans have made under President Bush. He won 80% of the counties in the United States in the 2004 election, and for the first time since Frankin D. Roosevelt, a President’s party took both houses of congress.

Sean talked about Hurricane Katrina, and that was educational. He said there were over 1,000 buses that sat empty and flooded in Louisiana, because the local government officials did not use them. Amtrac offered trains to be used by Louisiana to transport people, but where rejected by the officials. The local government in Louisiana was far worse off in their mistakes than the Federal government or the Bush administration. And the local government was democrat!
[I found this impressive. I heard that buses sat flooded, but I thought it was one hundred or so, not enough to really make a difference. But with 1,000+ buses and amtrac trains, it seems to me this entire crisis of stranded people could have been avoided.]

Yet, despite this major democrat failure, the liberal cry, even among ranks as high as former President Bill Clinton, is “it’s Bush’s fault.” He laughed the conservative joke that liberals would be someday blaming the weather on Bush is now reality. He mockingly mimicked liberal pundits saying, “the terrorists are Bush’s fault, the bird flu is Bush’s fault, the weather is Bush’s fault, I had an argument with my wife and it’s Bush’s fault,” then he pointed to my friend, who happened to have crutches and a broken foot, and said, “your broken foot is Bush’s fault!” John Kerry accused President Bush of leading a “Katrina administration”, making a campaign speech only one week after the hurricane.
[I agree with Sean that they too readily blame President Bush for things that go wrong. This is detrimental to both sides, ignoring the real issues and spend time talking about problems and blame that don’t exist.]

Sean made a case that the liberal democrat rhetoric is becoming more shrill. Howard Dean in particular keeps sticking his foot in his mouth. He has said since he became head of the Democrat National Committee chairman, he has said the most incendiary things against the opposing party, among them are “I hate Republicans” “Republicans are brain-dead” “Republicans are mean” and a “white Christian party.”
[Dean’s remarks are definitely out of line, and it reflects badly on the Democratic party. The Democrats should never have opted for such a controversial, angry, and radical person to lead their party. It will not only hurt them, but hurt America as well. It is not good for the world perception of America to be nothing but a polarized morass of nasty, rash people insulting each other. Debate is good, but this insulting behavior is not.]

Dean accused Bush/Republicans of not caring about minorities. Sean pointed out that President Bush has done more for minorities than any other President, spending more money on the poor than Bill Clinton. President Bush has appointed more minorities to government positions than any other President, surpassing Bill Clinton in this respect. When Howard Dean was governor, he had no African-Americans at all in his staff.
[It’s true that Republicans are giving attention to minorities, but I think we should dwell more on what unites us rather than what divides us. We need to stop continually thinking of America as a confederacy of minorities and ethnic groups, and think of ourselves as one, united nation first, and our differences second. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted a day when people looked at our character as a defining quality, not skin color. This hasn’t happened among most politicians. Skin color is still politicized. I will post another article on this at a later date.]

Sean quoted Howard Dean as saying that same-sex marriage protection is a “step towards change” further showing how out of touch he is with Americans.
[The liberal battle-cry for the past three centuries is “Change! Change!” The so-called “progressives” throughout history have called for change, but often do not realize what change means, or how change will benefit them. They often want to change a certain idea or practice for no other reason than change. This is what is called, “change for change’s sake”. This is a harmful idea. If we want to change something, it should be for the purpose of making something better; change in itself doesn’t make things better. Change can be for either bad or good. The Red Communists called for change when they overturned the czar, but the Russians found themselves in a worse position than they were before the czar fell – under oppressive communist rule. Howard Dean is right when he said same-sex marriage protection is a step towards change, but it would be change for the worse. It would undermine marriage, and therefore family, thereby undermining the entire United States.]

Eventually, Sean held a Town hall meeting with fellow Conservative talk-show host Rick Roberts. They talked about the border. Actually, the primary focus of this entire event is on the border situation, since San Diego county borders Mexico, and has a problem with illegal immigration. They had quite a long discussion on the need to fix the border problem. They also opened up for questions from the audience; the questioners lined up to speak into a microphone, since there were so many people. The common opinion was this: illegal immigration should not be tolerated, legal immigration should be welcomed, the system of accepting legal immigrants should be more stream-lined and efficient so good, hard-working people could get in easier without coming illegally. Rick Roberts thought that the first step in securing the border is to enforce the laws we already have.
[My present view is similar. However, I think that enforcing the laws we already have first, then months or years later fix the system to stream-line legal immigration, would result in hurt for a lot of people, both for American businesses who need workers and for the hard workers that can’t legally get into out country. Some of the immigration laws we have are faulty, and we need to fix them quickly first before we start alienating good migrants from America. We need immigration, and plenty of it. But it does need to be legal and documented so terrorists would not be able to slip through the cracks.]

When the town hall meeting was over, Sean spoke for a little while longer, encouraging conservatives to act, and let their voice be heard on important issues. He said there is much work to do, because the liberal elite controls most of the media, money, and even much of the government in America. He said we need to change the liberal 9th Circuit court of appeals, the most over-turned court in the US, we need to use the natural resources here in America, and drill for oil, reminding the audience that over 60% of the nations oil comes from outside the US, making us dependent on foreign governments who are hostile to the US.
[The Ninth circuit is out of control. I think Bush’s judicial nominees have helped the situation.]

When it was over, Sean stayed for an extra 20 minutes to sign autographs and take pictures before he left.
[My friend got his book by Hannity, Deliver Us from Evil, signed. Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took there turned out. The bright lights played havoc with my camera exposure, and his face was all washed out in my photos. The picture I have included was from the last time he came to speak.]







Overall, we had a great time. Sean Hannity is an engaging speaker, and has a charming sense of humor, though his humor is often downright insulting to liberals. Nonetheless, he is a good conservative commentator and thinker, and his insights were interesting. I listen to him sometimes on 760 KFMB. His show runs from noon to 3:00 pm.