Coulter and Her Friends in the Republican Party
We’ve been through the drill many times. Ann Coulter says something outrageous and hateful. There are calls for conservative organizations to stop giving Coulter a platform. The vast majority of those pleas do not come from conservatives. Then a few weeks or months go by and Ann is back at it, sanctioned again by the conservative establishment.
This time it was Coulter using the word “faggot” referring to John Edwards in her speech on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Then today it was revealed that Coulter’s Web site said Edwards campaign manager David Bonior “is fronting for Arab terrorists.”
People like Coulter give voice to the worst and often unexpressed sentiments of Republican politicians and their allied conservative organizations. What’s especially galling is that Republicans not only don’t hold Coulter accountable but they often suggest that the Democrats have their own extremists whom they use in the same way. Well, yes, there are extreme voices on the left. The difference, however, is that mainstream Democratic organizations and politicians don’t embrace those voices. Remember when Rush Limbaugh did his gruesome imitation of Michael J. Fox? Just days later, the president of the United States cozied up to Rush on his demagogic radio program. Ah, the Republicans say, you have Michael Moore. Sorry guys, to paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, Michael Moore is no Ann Coulter. Nor is he Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, and all the others. Moore has a strong point of view and sometimes resorts to journalistic techniques that are arguably unfair. But he’s not a hate-mongerer. When it comes to lying and distortion, Moore isn’t in the league of the conservative propagandist/shock jock A-team.