OPINION
28
Hannity's Grade on Reading Declaration, Constitution: F
Host forgets that founding fathers saw government as essential to liberty
By Nick McMaster
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Posted Jul 3, 09 4:58 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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In honor of July 4th, Sean Hannity has been encouraging his audience to buy pocket copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. But he might want to read them a little more closely himself, notes Henry Claw for the New Majority. “We do believe that all men are created equal, that we have certain unalienable rights—life, liberty, pursuit of happiness—and that governments often get in the way,” Hannity said, summarizing the Declaration.
Hannity’s got the first part right, but the Founders did not share his view that government is more often than not an impediment to liberty. Rather, they believed that “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men.” Conservatives like Hannity should reconcile their market-based, small-government philosophy with that of the founders, who saw “government as the guarantor of personal liberty,” Clay writes.