Comedia del Morte
Miguel Estrada says that Ann Coulter is "lively and funny." John Cloud wonders if she is really a "hard right ironist." She herself thinks that she's wickedly hilarious.
Well, this certainly is.
And the really, really cool thing is that this is a talking doll. Here's an example of the hilarious one-liners she gets off: (click here to hear her do a perfect impression of Amber Waves in "Boogie Nights.")
"Liberals can't just come out and say they want to take our money, kill babies and discriminate on the basis of race."
Irony has never been so subtle. Here's another of her screamingly funny bon mots (again, click the link to hear it delivered as if she's just swallowed a fistfull of Rush's Oxy)
"Liberals hate America, they hate flagwavers, they hate abortion opponents. They hate all religions except Islam post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do; they don't have the energy; if they had that much energy they'd have indoor plumbing by now."
Cloud says, "the officialdom of punditry, so full of phonies and dullards, would suffer without her humor and fire." I suppose if you are the kind of person who thinks that tying cats tails together and throwing them over a clothesline is funny, you might think this is too. There's always a market for that kind of "humor" among racists, bullies and their sycophants.
One thing I notice in all this back and forth is that Cloud and other Coulter defenders don't seem to grasp the fundamental difference between what Coulter says and what other, allegedly equally vicious, liberals like Eric Alterman say. Cloud is offended by Eric Alterman's use of the phrase "journalistic venereal disease" to describe the current state of Time magazine. (Apparently, he cannot appreciate the literary imagery of the phrase.) What he fails to understand is that Alterman is condemning a specific article, magazine, person etc, while Coulter is dehumanizing an entire group of people.
To be fair, it isn't just her, although she's probably the most egregious offender. Rush has been making this same argument for years. They are fomenting a form of tribal hatred which is not something that Eric Alterman or others are doing when they caustically criticize Time magazine.
There is an overt advocation of group hatred evolving here that should be offensive to everyone. Politics is a rough game and nobody says that we all have to speak as if we are at a tea party for Queen Elizabeth. But you have to look at the substance of what people like Coulter and Limbaugh are saying. They are making millions of dollars selling the message that liberals are enemies of America. Not just wrong. Not just stupid. Not just ugly. Dangerous traitors in a time of enormous challenge and global military action. People are reading and listening to this stuff and if they don't know better they might just think she isn't joking. Which I would argue, she isn't.
I don't suggest that she shouldn't be allowed to say what she wants (although Red State quotes her at the CPAC conference saying "this whole free speech thing is a canard.") But it isn't too much to ask that one of the mainstream national magazines of record not enable her overt hate mongering with a puff piece.
Cloud ends his letter to Alterman with the convenient chestnut that since both sides are screaming at him he must be fair. Coulter's defenders are mad at him because the cover doesn't flatter their gal enough. Liberals, on the other hand, are angry that Time magazine has seen fit to give mainstream credibility to someone who wants to annihilate them. That means he's fair and balanced.
Check out Sommerby on this subject if you've forgotten to. His series is a keeper.
Oh and just for a laugh here's a classic comment to the Red State post that expresses qualms about Coulter:
I don't know what you guys are whining about. Ann Coulter doesn't go on television ranting and raving like the liberals do. Remember Lawrence O'Donnell? Paul Begala? James Carville? Try Maureen Dowd. Ann is nothing like these losers but she does have a sharp wit and biting tongue and knows how to dish it out. These conspiracy theory wingnuts deserve nothing less.
That is the problem with Republicans. They don't know how to go for the throat while the Democrats are pros at aiming for the head.
I hope Ann keeps it up and never gives an inch. She is a strength for us conservatives, not something to be ashamed of.
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