By Daniel Johnson-Kim, Editor in Chief
These are hard times for the people who flourished in years past.
No, I am not referring to the hoards of unemployed Wall Street bankers who traded their high-paying gigs for a daily search of the wanted ads in the New York Times.
I am not alluding to the 70,000 people across the world who lost their jobs on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
I’m not even talking about the arrogant, ignorant governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who surely will be impeached by the Illinois Senate for trying to make a profit by selling President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.
The men I write of are the conservative loony tunes who yearned for the good old days when Obama was declared winner of the 2008 election. You may know them as Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck – the red-dyed radio and television talk show hosts who have a multitude of faithful fans.
After an election that saw the Democrats seize the legislative and executive branches of our federal government, the three loud-mouthed pundits who believe the winner of an argument is the person who screams the loudest have wasted no time in attacking Obama and telling their army of right-wing listeners the error of the new Commander in Chief’s policies.
In an exclusive interview on Hannity’s Fox News Program, Hannity asked Limbaugh his thoughts of the new administration and why the conservative platform has taken a back seat to the era of new liberalism Obama’s victory ushered in. The interview seemed more like a chat between old pals, and when these pals get together, they don’t hold back the hate.
“I think the intent is to create as many dependent Americans as possible looking to government as their hope and salvation, ” Limbaugh said of Obama’s plans to change the healthcare system and cover more Americans under a government funded system. “If he gets nationalized healthcare, it’s over, Sean; we’re never going to roll that back. That is the end of America as we know it.”
He went on to say how he wanted Obama to fail, he was displeased with the Republicans who were eager to work with Obama and he did not want Obama’s allegedly socialist policies to succeed.
Hannity himself is no stranger to bashing the 44th President of the United States. During the campaign, his investigative report, and I use that term loosely, on Obama’s alleged ties to terrorists, titled, “Barack Obama: History of Radicalism,” attempted to sully the reputation of the candidate and grasped at straws, while the McCain campaign headed for imminent failure.
Lately, Hannity juxtaposed two clips of Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary designate Timothy Geithner to fabricate a feud between the two. I guess he just needed to complain about.
Beck joined the hate chorus by calling Obama a “socialist” with “Marxist tendencies.”
With more than 68 percent approval ratings, Obama has the majority of the nation’s support and has shown his commitment to bipartisanship by his appointments and openness to working across party lines to find a solution to the recession and financial crisis. Freedom of speech is a civil right I hold dear, and Obama deserves to be watched and questioned by the media and the people of the United States.
But the hot-blooded attacks by these three men only hurt the unity necessary to overcome the challenges that face our nation.
When Obama was asked about Limbaugh’s comments, he told Republicans, “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.”
It’s good to know the most powerful man in the world understands the necessity of bipartisanship to carry our country through these hard times. Let’s hope he doesn’t take the whole “team of rivals” thing too far and hire Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck to work on his communications team. That just might be a little too much bipartisanship for me.
