June 10, 2006 7:07 AM

If hatred and ignorance didn't sell, she'd find another shtick

Trading in hate: Columnist’s insults to 9/11 widows on ‘Today’ marks a new low in contemporary political discourse

SKEWERING President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal landed the future syndicated columnist and author Ann Coulter in the public eye. To stay there, she’s been ramping up her rhetoric ever since. After her crude and vicious comments attacking a group of 9/11 widows in her latest book and on TV this week, perhaps the public needs some eyedrops to clear Coulter out of its field of vision. Even in a country where people thrive by saying the most outlandish things, Coulter has stretched the limits of acceptable opinion voiced by people who expect to be taken seriously. At one time or another she has suggested the forced conversion of Muslims to Christianity, the bombing of the New York Times building, the shooting of former President Clinton and the poisoning of a Supreme Court justice. Perhaps because her only threatening aspect is her tongue, and her willowy blonde appearance attracts television viewers, Coulter has enjoyed widespread exposure in mainstream media that generally shy away from providing platforms for extremist rhetoric from either the right or the left.

It’s often been said that ‘tis better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. It’s a lesson that Ann Coulter could stand to learn. Though no one should underestimate her intelligence and ability to articulate her hatred-fueled ideology, in the final analysis, Coulter is merely an intelligent, articulate bigot who thoroughly disrespects anyone who doesn’t think like her as something less than human.

The sad reality, though, is that her shtick sells. Her books are bestsellers, her columns widely read, and she is constantly in demand by Conservative news outlets. She’s managed to make a handsome living out of being a purveyor of hatred and insults. Unfortunately, while Coulter is undoutedly very calculated in the hatred she spews and very aware of it’s impact on the public political discourse, most of her drooling, horny (and male) fan base is not. Most of these sheeple care only that she speaks to their ignorance and preconceived notions and provides both rationale and justification for reacting emotionally intstead of thinking rationally. In the same way that Michelle Malkin addresses the lowest common denominator, Coulter works hard at whipping the cretins into a frenzy of hatred and vitriol against whatever she happens to despise at the moment. Given the nature of her diatribes, Liberals are usually blamed in part or in toto. Hey, the sheeple eat this $%!# up….

That Coulter (and Malkin, and others like them) have achieved such a degree of fame and notoriety is truly a sad commentary on the state of civility in this country. To her way of thinking, anyone who dares to think differently is worthy only of scorn, derision, and in some cases, death. Yeah…now THERE’S a great way to run a democracy, eh??

Some conservative publications have balked at printing her rants. But as the New York Post pointed out, it hasn’t stopped Coulter from becoming a best-selling author, making the cover of Time magazine, and recently purchasing a $1.5 million condo on the Upper East Side of New York City. As Coulter has demonstrated, selling hate and resentment in today’s poisoned political atmosphere can be lucrative.

In an interview Tuesday with Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today, the show host questioned Coulter closely about her description of four New Jersey widows who banded together to successfully campaign for the creation of the 9/11 Commission. Lauer read a passage from Coulter’s new book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, in which she stated that “these broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much.” The widows, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Monica Gabrielle, Mindy Kleinberg and Lorie Van Auken, who together have seven children, replied: “Contrary to Ms. Coulter’s statements, there was no joy in watching men we loved burn alive. There was no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never coming home again. We adored those men and miss them every day.”

It should come as no great shock to any thinking individual that politics is and always has been not for the easily offended. Those who jump into the ring expect the fight to be tough and sometimes dirty. What no reasonable person should tolerate, however, is the spewing of hatred and resentment packaged as insightful political commentary. Coulter’s skewering of 9.11 widows is so low that “below the belt” doesn’t begin to do it justice. That any reasonable media outlet could sink so low as to peddle this crap is simply unconscionable and unjustifiable. Ah, but it sells copy, no??

It would seem that we now live in an era in which the gloves are off, and civility and respect is considered the province of those weaklings who lack a killer instinct. Conservatives seem to only truly value those pundits willing to crush and humiliate their adversaries. Mere disagreement is no longer adequate and sufficient. No, in order to prove your bona fides, one must be willing to emply any tactic to defeat your adversary- hatred, resentment, disinformation, outright lies, personal attacks- by any means necessary. Mere victory is no longer satisfying. No, one must now crush, humiliate, and thoroughly degrade your adversary to be truly considered worthy of the victor’s mantle.

Of course, I reject this line of thinking out of hand, and I refuse to engage in what Hillary Clinton has so famously dubbed “the politics of personal destruction”. If that makes me a cowardly, bleeding-heart Liberal, then so be it. I just think that there is still something to be said for civility, respect, and the Golden Rule. After all, if you want to be treated with dignity, is it too much to expect that you treat others with that same dignity? Apparently, if you’re a Conservative, the answer is an unqualified “yes”.

Coulter owes the widows an apology, but that’s as unlikely as a thank-you note from her for the additional book sales, talk show bookings and profits the controversy will likely generate. In creating the image of self-obsessed women exploiting tragedy and reveling in millionaire celebrity, she didn’t need to look any further than her mirror for a model ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ a model Americans must now reject.

No, Ann Coulter is laughing all the way to the bank, which I imagine is all that is really important to her.

Hey, things could be worse. You could have to wake up next to the troll every morning….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on June 10, 2006 7:07 AM.

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