Since I don’t have cable, I’m spared watching Sean Hannity — but I do listen to him during drive time radio, for as long as I can stand. Some days are worse than ever. I listen, because if you want a shortcut to the weaponized stupid the GOP is spouting, Sean’s on it.
And here’s the thing. Hannity (or Hannityjob as I saw someone refer to him) has no scruples. There’s nowhere he won’t go to advance the conservative agenda and attack liberals. No lie is too big, no claim is too outrageous. The only thing more important is making sure he gets in plugs for his sponsors. He’s never in doubt, and always pushing, pushing, pushing.
His big job at the moment: construct an alternative universe for his audience where Trump is the victim, has done nothing wrong, and the real villains are the people running the witch hunt against him — the media, liberals, the Swamp, Hillary Clinton, etc. etc.
I’m not sure I have a grasp on all the moving pieces (they keep mutating), but here’s a rundown of what I’ve been hearing lately, based on the limited amount of Hannity I can stand before having to change to another station. In no particular order,
- The Clinton Foundation is a money-laundering operation that has funneled millions to the Clintons from some of the worst people and countries in the world.
- Bill is a sexual predator, worse than anything about (fill in the blank) and Hillary covers for him.
- Hillary was bribed/used bribery to hand over control of America’s uranium to Russia.
- Hillary has threatened violence against a woman who says she’s still terrified of her. (I forget her name, but Hannity plays her recording periodically as an intro to Hillary-bashing.)
- Mueller during his time in charge of the FBI covered for Hillary over emails, or Benghazi, or something, and he’s filled his investigation with people from the FBI and elsewhere in government who are all anti-Trump and are Hillary supporters. It’s all a partisan witch hunt — and the REAL Russian connection is with Hillary and the DNC. No evidence of collusion by Trump. None.
- Comey is guilty of obstruction of justice for the way he handled the email investigation — and Hillary lied repeatedly to the FBI, so why is Flynn the one being charged? Proof the fix is in!
- The government is full of people out to sabotage Trump — they can’t be trusted.
- Sally Yates should have been fired the moment Trump took the oath of office. His 12-5-17 guest Victoria Toensing was saying everyone should have been gone as soon as Trump took office and immediately replaced by Trump appointees, among other things. (Hence things like this.)
- Perennial themes: Democrats are corrupt, liberals are destroying the country, Obama sucked, the Clintons are behind everything (along with George Soros), the liberal media lies all the time.
- Oh, and Trump is great, and the big problem with Republicans is that they keep wimping out when it comes time to enact the conservative agenda America needs so badly.
Hannity spends every day weaving these threads together, bringing in new ones as needed, and dropping ones that don’t work at the moment. And it’s damned dangerous for America.
Every day, Hannity is undermining faith in our institutions, the government, and the rule of law. He’s priming his audience to reject everything that doesn’t fit with the picture he’s painting — and it could well be a violent rejection. If it seems like Trump/Republican supporters live in a different universe, Hannity is one of the loudest voices creating it. And Trump laps this stuff up, as part of his addiction to FOX. It’s a toxic feedback loop.
There’s a growing fear that it no longer matters what the Mueller investigation finds — and Sean Hannity will be a big part of the reason why if that proves to be the case.