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June 15, 2006Coulter: Hate consumes the haterIt’s a shame - a rather storied and celebrated career ends in the trash compactor like Jimmy Hoffa, all because the man could not control his ego or his hate. Bush Derangement Syndrome is going to do more than ruin a few careers, it’s going to destroy a once great political party. Not that the GOP is in any shape to crow - it is busily making itself as unattractive to the rest of the country as it possibly can, what with Coulter apologists slapping their knees and chuckling while she carries on about “Hillary’s chubby legs” and “Rahm Emmanuel’s Tutu” in the same stupid manner so many of us have decried on the part of the left. In addition to the consensus position that liberals are godless, no one has made a peep about that swipe I took at Hillary, proposing that she have a chat with her husband before accusing others of being “mean” to women in light of Juanita Broaddrick’s charge that Bill Clinton raped her. Hillary beat a hasty retreat on her chubby little legs and is now hiding behind Rahm “Don’t Touch My Tutu” Emanuel. Yes, the Democrats’ pit bull, Rahm Emanuel, is a former ballerina. And they wonder why the concerted effort of the MSM (as we call the mainstream media) and the Democratic Party can’t lay a finger on me. A ballerina. Hey, if the padded, silky shoe fits … What is the point of that? How is that relevent to anything? Sorry, I’m not going to chuckle and say, “aw, that Ann’s a pistol, ain’t she?” She’s doing here precisely she herself says the left does, and no, it’s not clever, it’s not funny. It’s not better because it comes from the right. It’s not “justified” because “they started it.” It’s weak. It’s lame. It’s spiteful and immature. It is what the left does with impunity, but that doesn’t make it right. And once again it undercuts and discredits the very sound and excellent points Coulter makes at the end of her piece, where she puts out very “uncivil” quotes made by members of the MSM who are now castigating her for incivility. I don’t know…maybe I really am all wrong, but to me the way to battle incivility is not to embrace it to yourself and then crow about how you are doing so. You’ve got something critical to say, then say it and hell yes a little snark is a good thing…but snark demands a bit of wit. There is nothing witty in calling a woman fat or doing a sneer because a man danced…or are we really trying to imply something about the man’s sexuality? And that is relevent, how, exactly? That makes us better than the left, how? That’s leadership? That’s something we want to follow? Go ahead…it will just make you the equivalent of a Koskid…ah, see where embracing such rhetoric leads, to a playground on which the left yells bumpersticker slogans and the right yells, “fat legs! You’re gay!” Brilliant. So useful. Coulter will never calm down and she’ll never rein herself in, and that’s a shame, because she’s awfully smart. She seems to relish ther persona as the bristling blonde (and she’s certainly a disher of red meat for a particular audience) but I think in the long run, she hurts the right, she hurts our cause. She could be absolutely correct about everything in the world, but she is so off-putting that she simply adds to every stereotype of the “mean and hypocritical, homophobic Christian conservative,” that is out there, and no, I don’t want that reflected onto me. But then again, it’s more and more clear that I am really not a “conservative,” at least not as they currently define themselves, anymore than I am a “liberal” as currently defined. You will never convince me that the only way to handle the illegal immigration problem is to “ship them all back,” and even though Hastert - desperately attempting to redeem himself after his Jefferson gaffe - is dealing a blow to the immigration bill, the end of the article points out: Flake sponsored an early version of the Senate bill with Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who also called for the bill to move forward. “Only a small, vocal faction wants to stop a sensible guest-worker program and ignore the reality of the 11 million undocumented living in the country now,” Kolbe said in a statement. “We must not let any delays impede our progress toward solving this problem.” The truth is, only a small percentage of Americans - yes, a faction - are demanding that every man, woman and child not here absolutely, 100% legally be shipped back to Mexico, no exceptions, no matter what. Their rhetoric is hot and the GOP is spineless. The senate bill needs lots of improving, that’s true…but rather than improve it, the terrified GOP in the house will shelve it. Nothing will be done on illegal immigration and somehow that will be a “victory.” Yes…a victory for a faction. Not for the nation. As we descend from a people of common goals and values into a teeming, bubbling cauldron of factions, this is nothing to celebrate. Faction: : a party or group (as within a government) that is often contentious or self-seeking : see also CLIQUE The problem with cliques, is that they always seem to need someone to hate. We’re still in the schoolyards, after all. Related: http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/06/15/hate-consumes-the-hater/trackback/ 28 Responses to “Coulter: Hate consumes the hater” |
June 15th, 2006 at 10:47 am
As you note, Coulter is smart.
If she kept her eye on the ball instead of deliberately making herself a target, she be a lot more credible.
June 15th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
What angers me more isn’t so much the unacceptable comments. It is the people who get upset when I express my disapproval of them.
If it’s wrong, it’s wrong - I don’t care if it is “my guys” doing it, whether it’s joking about murder via a fragmentation grenade or using a corked bat (as Milwaukee Brewers Hernan Irribarren found out - he was not only suspended by the minor league he was playing in, he got a suspension from the Brewers in addition to that).
June 15th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
A,
You wrote, ….”stereotype of the mean and hypocritical homophobic Christian conservative”. Okay…where does that come from? Is it true? Do you fear that? Why are Pastors always buffoons on t.v. and movies? Why is the U.S. Military brass always scheming to take over the world in these movie plots. Why are gays always so sweet and intelligent, and the straights are naive and stupid? Tell me where these stereotypes come from, A?
I have said before, this culture war is not being played fairly by the left. The Kos Kids use ridiculous conspiracy assertions and scare tactics for weapons….Ann uses tartly worded facts.
Using good taste, and writing passive contradictions, being civil, but firm are all good weapons used by you and other conservative bloggers. I salute your moral convictions.
But….I still think we need a few “nukes” to add to your artillery. Ann Coulter is a “Nuke”.
June 15th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
God gave Bush greatness (except for immigration); the Anchoress, wisdom (mostly); and Annie C, a sharp tongue. Hurrah for them all.
June 15th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
[...] I've not bought Coulter's new book. But I've read enough excerpts recently to convince me that her brand of conservative ankle-biting is no better than the rampant hypocrisy on the Left I have been excoriated these past few months. I'm sure she won't be missed from my blogroll, as damn few people read this place anyway (unless I pink the Pandagon bull. . .that seems to send my hits skyrocketing. . .but I'm not sure that is worth it. . .and that's another post for another time) but this article (GO READ IT RIGHT NOW!!!) convinced me that she has got to go, and she really needs to go from most blogrolls. [...]
June 15th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Hi Bob - I meant to respond to your comment the other day and didn’t get around to it - I will try to get to that today. As far as the stereotypes, you wonder where they come from? Well, obviously they are played up by the left who run the movies, tv programs, etc…but the fact is most steroetypes are rooted in truth. The stereotypes we see of Conservatives and Christians (and Catholics, and Southerners, etc) may be based on OLD and no longer applicable behavior, they may be unfair, but they did come from somewhere besides the media first. The stereotype of the Italian Mama who slaps her son upside the head, of the flaming, flambouyant gay, of the Elmer Gantryish preacher, of the brick-throwing Southern racist, of the sleazy politician of any party, of the smug northerner who is a closet racist…these are not complete fabrications. We know about them because they really exist(ed).
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Conservatives have - I believe - responded more fully to the civil rights movements of the last 30 years than anyone. THey are - with the exceptions of those Phelps disasters and their ilk, more “live and let live” folks than the lock-steppers on the left, and yet they are still painted as racists, homophobes, etc, etc, etc. It doesn’t matter where the stereotype came from at this point, what matters is THAT WE DO NOT PERPETUATE IT - THAT WE PROCLAIM WHO WE ARE BY OUR ACTIONS. You are correct when you assert that the Culture war is not being played fairly. But you know what, terrorism is not “fair war” either. Nevertheless, we’re winning that war using honorable and fair methods - and I believe we can win the culture war the same way!
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You want a nuke, you’ve got one in Coulter. Just remember, a reckless nuke can take you out, along with your enemy.
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On Coulter, you and I will have to agree to disagree. You can see that I acknowledge her strengths. I’m sorry you cannot see her obvious weaknesses.
June 15th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Thanks A, we will agree to disagree on this one.
Back in “the day”, The Balt. Orioles had some really nice (and great) players like Brooks Robinson, and Boog Powell winning 100 games a year. But we also had our “mean guy”, Frank Robinson, crowding the plate, sliding hard into bases, and taking no prisoners. Al McGuire, former great roundball coach at Marquette once said: “You can have all the great shooters and ballhandlers you want, but give me that “Aircraft Carrier”, that wins championships. He was referring to a big tough strong Center.
I know I am giving a lot of slack to Ann Coulter, maybe your right…too much slack…but for now….she is my Aircraft Carrier.
June 15th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Coulter strikes me as yet another demoagogue; I’ve had it with all the demagogues.
June 15th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
I do not care for Coulter and what is more I find myself more and more turned off by pols and pundents alike. There is something so spiteful about these kinds of tactics and it accomplishes nothing. In fact considering the fact that Congress seems to be pulling the plug on immigration it seems that accomplishing nothing is a trend. And they were the ones who started this whole fiasco in the first place. Harriet Miers, Dubai and now the implosion on immigration. Sound and fury signifying nothing.
June 15th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
I agree with Terrye. Reading the blogs and the conservative forums has gotten less and less fun lately. This began when people started calling President Bush “Presidente Jorge Arbusto” for supposedly aiding and abetting an invasion by Mexico.
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It doesn’t help when I keep coming across posts (on other websites) expressing a wish that illegal immigrants DIE. A few weeks back I read a post from someone who wanted to see the border turned into a military free-fire zone. Today (right now as I write) there is a thread on the same website about people looking for and draining water tanks set out in the desert for the immigrants, and all the posters there are laughing about it or agreeing that that’s a proper thing to do — and I find myself thinking, “Maybe I don’t really fit in on this website anymore.”
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As for Coulter, her continual snark started to wear a little thin for me even before I ever heard of Harriet Miers, and it was her treatment of Harriet Miers (who, after all, I thought, was a fellow right-of-center gal) that led me to decide that I could live without Ann Coulter’s snottiness for the rest of my life.
June 15th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Lot of posts lately hitting on Coulter and those who support a tough stand on immigration. My take on immigration is that it should be legal so that we can control our borders, but also so we can have a policy that agrees on how many immigrants with certain skills we can absorb into our economy without impacting Americans working to support their families. To do so, I have always said we need to have a three step policy. First we need to pass very tough legislation on employers who are willing to break the law so as to have cheap labor. I propose a fine per each incident that gets their attention, say $500K to $1M. Provide a reward to those who turn in employers giving them 10%. You dry up jobs to those who cannot clearly prove they are here legally. The funding is used to help support strong border security. Second you go to Mexico and have a strong meeting to work on solutions to the problems of Mexico so our southern border friends can stay at home. Back this up with both carrot and stick. You also talk to them about drugs now flowing through their borders. When this is in place, you have an agency that closely works with the needs of employers to insure we have a good guest worker program if needed and also solid immigration numbers. As far as Coulter is concerned, show me where she is wrong on any issue. You throw her out with the left who uses lies and outragous behaviour as if she was doing the same.
June 16th, 2006 at 12:19 am
Ann Coulter speaks for herself, not all Republicans or all Conservatives. She would be the first to tell you that. I don’t ever recall her asking for anyone’s support after she chose her words and caused a stir. So what’s the problem? I, too, have never seen her wrong on substantive matters. I didn’t see anyone else taking on the thirty years of lies surrounding Joe McCarthy. Did anyone else ever give McCarthy credit for NOT disclosing his source(VENONA Intercepts)even though it cost him his career? How many point out that McCarthy only questioned one entertainer(Aaron Copland). And that had nothing to do with show business(Copland was heading a government program). Before LaShawn Barber took on Kwanzaa, Ann had it covered in more specific detail years before. The list is too long to cover here.
The “legs” comment is, most likely, related to the Gennifer Flower’s remark for those with memories. And perhaps to the pics of Hillary that appeared in magazines before the 1992 election, showing Hillary’s head on someone else’s body(remember the Hillary as Dominatrix photo?) Guess that must of been the source of all that “Hillary’s HOT!)stuff on liberal radio talk shows of the time. And Rahm Emanuel? You can guess what grief Ann must have gotten from him during the Paula Jones trial, can’t you? He was the Clinton Administration point man on all that, including their strategy of attacking the character and APPEARANCE of the witnesses for the prosecution. Remember what they said about Paula Jones and her nose. And Linda Tripp? Yes, Ann could be better than them in all ways. But nobody’s perfect!
So Conservatives or Republicans don’t always agree! Good! Better than the lock step of the other side! Disagree with her, fine. Or point out that you would have phrased it differently.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:30 am
I take Coulter with a large shaker of salt. The left has their bombthrower - Michael Moore and we have Ann Coulter. God knows she’s better looking!
But Anchoress, Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin have made statements that are just as outrageous. Durbin compared the troops to concentration camp guards, and the left and the MSM didn’t get all incensed.
June 16th, 2006 at 6:16 am
Ellen:
I think the point is if we excuse the Coulters how are we in any position to go after the guys on the other side? haven’t we just validated their tactics?
June 16th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Yes, yes a thousand times yes. The left is full of deplorable people who say deplorable things and get away with it. I agree. It’s not fair, I agree.
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Still doesn’t mean I have to clap my hands in glee when I see the same stuff coming from the right.
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I’ve written in the past that the left has an entire stable of asses, Dowd, Carleson, Thomas, Ratner, etc, etc, etc and we have a mere few by comparison…maybe only one.
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But that’s no excuse. And I’m not going to make excuses about why it’s “okay” or “understandable” for someone like Coulter, who is very smart, to descend into that behavior, or for her to denigrate a woman’s appearance after making comments about how wrong that is for the left to do.
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Hey, all I’m looking for is consistancy and for Coulter to stop undercutting what could be greatness with simple stunt-talk and brashness. If you folks love her that way, more power to you. I think in the end, she will do more harm than good.
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So, we’ll agree to disagree.
June 16th, 2006 at 10:19 am
[...] The Anchoress, who everyone who thinks all Christians are the same should read, takes apart Ann Coulter. Unlike Ann, she is polite about it. [...]
June 16th, 2006 at 10:37 am
I think the point is the right has played fair since gee what the 1930’s and as a result the left now controls these opinion centers: Schools, Colleges, Television, Print Journalists, and Network News.
The right has never figured out how to fight them because the right has always been full of people like you Anchoress who would rather die than be impolite. Who would rather lose than to win ugly..the problem with that idea is the Left really doesnt care how it wins…ugly, cheating, nuclear or whatever. They merely want to win. Once they win it will be all over…our chance will have passed as the left will make it impossible to fight back. It is really rather important that we win…losing to the left is unthinkable.
What many on the right have failed to understand is this is a fight with no rules not some polite debating society where if we lose this debate we can come back next week and try again. It is very similar to our attitude in this war…we are fighting with all sorts of absurd rules whilst our enemy has one rule, win.
We need to win.
June 16th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Okay, be ready to win. Just understand that the victory may come at a very high price - the further devolution of public discourse.
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Two wrongs don’t make a right. And all of this negativity will not make positives.
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I’m amazed at myself for saying this because back when Reagan was president, I was a liberal democrat, and wouldn’t have appreciated it…but I think Reagan would be on my side in this.
June 16th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
So the way to take back our government and our colleges is to start talking like Ted Rall? Because we just can’t win this unless we start getting in the habit of, say, calling the Jersey Girls a bunch of succubi gleeful about their husbands’ deaths?
June 16th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
The only person Ann hurts is herself.
Jesus, perhaps, shouldn’t have overturned the tables of the money changers in the Temple. He might have given them all a valid coin of the realm or bid a folk of doves to light, one on each traveler’s arm, instead. When the woman said to Churchill that if he were her husband she’d poison his dinner, he might not have said “Madam, and if I were your husband, I’d eat it…He could have said, “Madam, what an interesting point of view!”
Ann doesn’t talk like Ted Rall, Michael Moore, Molly Ivins, Garrison Keillor or any of the ten-thousand Leftists in the MSM because her points of view are supported by actual facts and not lies, half-truths, and misrepresentations. Even her insults are accurate. On EVERY college campus in this country, students are given a daily dose of “Bush is a war criminal,” “Bush should be hung,” etc. You might want to begin your campaign to clean up civil discourse there. College students now interpret politeness as weakness–proof that you are wrong and that your position is unsupportable. When reporters ask that question about whether Bush would like to admit that he was wrong, I’d like for Bush to say, just once, “Yes, now that I think of it, I was wrong to call upon you a few seconds ago.”
Ann wants the Left to spend their days writing those little notes to her about what they would like to do to her with a chainsaw–as they do now. She would probably be sad to see that so many on the Right are spending their breath and bandwidth in a similar non-productive fashion.
Reagan called her “Annie” or “My Annie” by the way. I think he had a lot of practice exercising patience and tolerence when it came to certain young people, whether or not they were his own flesh and blood.
June 16th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Oh yeah. My Ann candle burned out awhile ago. There was a time — like over a decade ago — when her schtick seemed daring and justifiable. Back in the dark days when things really were unequal, media wise. Plus, I was still in my 30s and politcally very young & combative. But I changed, and the world changed. And we conservatives waged war and got the power baby. And we balanced things out with blogs, talk radio, and FoxNews… right?
I don’t think a kinder, loftier Ann is a big reach or an impossibility. I’d be open to it, in the event she ever decides to try it. I’d certainly rather have her on my side! But the same old same old Ann is annoying and grating to me in 2006. I agree with The Anchoress, in the long run she will do more harm than good — especially with youngsters and folks in the middle.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Darrell, I think you’ll agree that the Ann Coulter of 2006 is not the Ann Coulter of 1986.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Anchoress, I stand with you on this one. Ann reminds me too much of a beloved aunt who becomes a raging degenerate after too many drinks. She’s smart and she’s funny, but she’s not the same caliber that she was 15-20 years ago. I had to laugh at the Jesus vs. The Moneychangers example, though. Jesus turned over the tables and frightened them away, but he didn’t set them on fire.
June 16th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Aw, lighten up everybody. Geez. What a bunch of flat tires.
Annie’s giving the libs the perfect fits, and I’ve laughing my arse off.
June 16th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Who among us IS?
I have no idea how “flock” became “folk” in my letter, even! Mysteries!
I am happy that my favorite political writers are all women. I don’t know exactly HOW that happened, and I don’t know what it means, but I’m equally sure it’s a good thing! I thank the Anchoress, Ann, Alexandra von Maltzan, Michelle Malkin, Lorie Byrd, and the rest for saying what needs to be said, and being there when I need you most.
June 16th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
BTW, I always hung out around THAT aunt at every party…
June 20th, 2006 at 1:40 am
Ann’s trademark, high-school-quality insults are the equivalent of masturbation. They provide her and her audience with immediate gratification, and the rest of us are either repulsed or amused, but there was never any damage done. She’s just a novelty freak.
If “the left” had to select a candidate to debate Ann, they wouldn’t bother with Moore or Gore or Chomsky.
Just pay $5 to some teenager with a brand new book of ‘yo mama’ one-liners, and let her fight against an equal.
You once considered her credible, and for that you never will be.
September 1st, 2006 at 3:37 am
[...] You know what? I’ve pretty much said all I’m going to about Coulter when she does this sort of thing. She has a fans and her appreciators and apologists. I am not one of them, and I believe her antics reflect poorly on conservatives, but whatever floats your boat. [...]