FLASHBACK: Sean Hannity Speaks Out Against A “Government Gone Wild”

It was just four months ago that Fox News was covering the “second American revolution” at the ranch of tax-cheat Cliven Bundy. While the network was uniformly supportive of Bundy’s refusal to pay customary grazing fees, it was Sean Hannity who took the lead, featuring Bundy on his program numerous times, heralding him as a hero, and fiercely defending the militia movement’s embrace of armed opposition to law enforcement.

At that time, in the view of Hannity and other conservatives, it was the feds who were overstepping the bounds of decency and behaved like jackbooted thugs. To them it was the manifestation of a dictatorial state trampling on freedom and crushing liberty. Hannity milked the controversy for everything he could squeeze out in regular segments that he called “Government Gone Wild.”

Fox News Sean Hannity

From the right-wing perspective, the government went wild when it responded to a flagrantly delinquent white man in the cattle business who wants to mooch off of federal lands for free. Bundy has a vested interest in this as he owes over a million dollars in fees. Then, when this businessman assembles a posse of armed militia members to confront the tax collector, Hannity and his ilk line up behind the law-breaker and whine about government overreach. Here’s Hannity to Karl Rove:

“Let’s start with the Cliven Bundy situation. All right, maybe he owes grazing fees money. Do you surround his property with snipers and shooters, sharp shooters and tasers and dogs and 200 agents? Is that the way to handle it?”

“No,” says an obedient Rove. After all, it’s just a measly million dollars in grazing fees. And for the record, the federal agents of the Bureau of Land Management did not arm themselves until after they were confronted by Bundy’s militia who swore to kill those who came to enforce the law.

Jump forward to today and it’s the people going wild. The government is now believed to be acting appropriately by shooting an unarmed teenager to death. And his only crime was an allegation (unconfirmed) that he pocketed a few cigars. Then militarized police confront justifiably angry citizens who have no personal stake in the matter other than to insure that justice is brought to bear.

The presence of urban tanks, assault weapons, riot gear, tear gas, and other aggressive means of crowd control, are not considered to be indicative of a government gone wild anymore. Is it because the victim in this case is a poor, black kid, rather than a well-to-do white rancher?

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14 thoughts on “FLASHBACK: Sean Hannity Speaks Out Against A “Government Gone Wild”

  1. Conservatives believe government exists only to out down minorities and the working class with internal paramilitary forces while invading foreign countries to them up for exploitation by the external military. If it does anything else it’s Unconstitional.

    • Typical stupidity mr Grung_e_Gene – conservatives don’t believe that – I may not be able to argue if you stated the current republican party in DC believes that – but not actual conservatives. The media and the blind followers here still connect today’s GOP with conservatism – they are not the same. What today’s GOP has become is the problem – and that clown Hannity is a perfect example of it. Get your facts straight.

      • Steve, it is you who are mistaken. It IS the Conservatives who believe this way. The Conservatives, of which Sean is one, are the problem. They have pretty much taken over the GOP. Read some history of the conservatives in the Republican party, you’ll understand better then.

      • What a useless and irrelevant rationalization. Do you feel absolved of what your philosophy enacted has done to this country? Must be nice to reason away accountability so easily as just a ‘true conservative’ self label. Especially since you know you vote with the ‘unpure’ conservative GOP every chance you get. Laughable.

        • So long as my choice is this GOP crowd or Barack Obama – that will be the case – no question about it. If you’re suggesting I actually vote for an ideology I consider more threatening to my well being, guilty as charged. I still see your ideology as I did before, shall I say it again? If my philosophy was actually enacted – this country wouldn’t look anything like it does today. It may not look like your utopia, but it would be a whole lot nicer and freer.

          • You don’t even know what you believe, do you? ‘A whole lot nicer and freer’??? The fuck does that even mean? You’ve never once articulated your views except that you’re not with the GOP and you think the left ‘are worse than terrorists’. All you ever do is bitch and complain and then disappear after some totally vacant and ambiguous ‘liberty and freedom blah blah blah’ cliche bullshit. I mean for christ sake, ‘a whole lot nicer and freer’? Holy shit Steve that’s some deep and well thought out shit, that just oozes ‘I’m engaged and crave substantive discussion’. So you’re not a republican, but you vote republican, because the other guys are worse than terrorists? You vote out of pure opposition?? You must LOVE being pissed, you apparently have no horse in the game but take no responsibility for the way you do in fact vote. ‘I’m not with them, I just voted for them.’ My god it must be nice and cozy to never explain yourself and STILL have the nuts to look in from the outside and say, ‘No no no, YOU’VE ALL GOT IT ALL WRONG! Listen to MEEEE!!!’ They truly must clank when you walk to shit all over everyone else, (and apparently throw your own side under the bus at the same time) and never go out on a limb. Nicer and freer my ass, you’re barely qualified to pretend to know what the fuck you think you’re talking about. You prove that much every time.

            • No time to waste on this – so here is a brief reply:
              Do you actually ever think about root causes for why things you don’t like in society are the way they are? I venture you don’t.
              I’ll accept your notion that I don’t explain what I really believe to clearly – yep, that is correct here and that isn’t such a good thing.
              I’ll state that everything I do believe about government and its role in society is based wholly on the fact that BIG government is the root cause of most all bad outcomes in society. It’s pretty simple and gets past all the emotional bullshit you leftist can’t help but use as your focal point. And that includes even the supposedly great things you like to hold up like the FDA.

            • I wish there was more time in the day – but I work for a living and don’t live the life of a college student who has time to write epistles like you do.

            • Root causes? Of course I do, ignorance and poverty. Working against just those two social diseases is a massive part of the ideology I hold and a part of the work in bettering my own life. That much should be more than blatantly evident but I guess that was too much to pick up on. Again, another empty cliche about big government with no actual substance. A regurgitated soundbyte. What about big government? The FDA? That’s your example? So…is that to say you don’t want the FDA to exist or it’s just too big? Our own history shows how necessary it is, of course that’s where ignorance rears it’s head. Know anything about miracle all-cures and con artists selling deadly ‘new age medicines’? I’m sure for forking over some tax dollars to make sure the pill I’m swallowing does what’s advertised and doesn’t contain poison. I don’t know what about the necessities taught by the history of our own country are too emotional, but then again that’s just another cop out from actually having to properly explain yourself. Also, college eats up a shit load of time, I barely have enough time to sleep and take a shit each day, but I still find the quick 5 mins to mop newscorpse’s floor with your weak ass. But of course, I’m just a lazy typical college student that wouldn’t know hard work, right?

              ‘…most bad outcomes…’ Yeah, I’M clearly the one that has no fuckin idea wtf I’m talking about, because I’M the one that ‘doesn’t think about the root causes’. Yet again, LAUGHABLE.

            • Since you were so good as to share your thoughts – I have some time to share what I’m talking about specifically:
              Note my emphasis on BIG Government – which was exactly what I meant – the kind of government that grow so big and actually gets into running peoples lives to the point where they tell you what product you must buy or can use and which you can’t. If I was a billionaire sociopath – you know the kind that wants to take as much as they can from everyone else – wanted help in doing his bidding – it’s certainly a lot easier if you can take your pile of money and go to one central location – ie Washington DC – and use it to buy as much influence as possible and get that dirty group to dictate to everyone something that benefits me.

              Examples – the ACA – nice little handout to the insurance companies provided by the individual and employer mandate – and a nice handout to big pharma who gets some of their drugs covered by statute.
              Another – the Monsanto Protection Act – protecting a large biotech corporation from lawsuits – you know just in case their product kills people.

              All that is ONLY possible though BIG government.

              And on the FDA – one stop shopping for big pharma – the agency wholly responsible for the approval of new drugs to the market and more importantly – which won’t be permitted in the market place thereby protecting big pharma profits and keeping products dangerous to their profits from coming to market. Any competition is of course bad for them.

              And 2 of the 3 examples are from a liberal democrat president – GW Bush had his own – the expansion of medicare for drug coverage was a nice deal for US drug companies.

              You’re an idiot – wake the fuck up and realize your worship of government as the cure to all our ills is not what is happening and is very probably keeping this country from moving forward. ONLY individual liberty, free from excessive government control, will restore the power to the people. Big government is easily corrupted by money – maybe you’ll get that when your finally producing something in this world. I don’t generally think that of college students – but your amazing desire to lecture all of us that actually do something in this world makes it hard
              to ignore.

            • Oh, I didn’t even mention another example – one you leftists find silly – and that is the money we use, which isn’t even money, but it’s what we have. Total control of the US currency is in the hands of the banks – the 10 largest own the Federal Reserve. Since BIG government and all it’s programs NEED access to way more money than is available through taxes – so they create it out of thin air by borrowing from the banks – which of course dilutes the money supply and screws the average guy by reducing his purchasing power – which of course only government get benefit for since they spend it into circulation first – at full value. This of course is only permitted because of government – which of course is not even constitutional, but of course who cares about that, just so government gets what it needs. You’re a sucker.

      • Yes today’s GOP which is a direct reflection of the conservative domestic terrorist mindset is the problem. The American conservative has 3 core beliefs today; oppression, intolerance and adulation of the Rich. Anything which does not advance these tenets is anathema to them.

        • Conservative logic doesn’t move in a straight line so much as it spins, doubles-back, and hopscotches until it finally collapses in a heap on the ground.

  2. >Conservatives believe government exists…………

    Progressives believe government exists to control everything except for abortion and sex and all geneitalia related stuff

    See? Anyone can play this game t

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