Ann Coulter – RationalWiki
We just want Jews to be perfected. Coulter[1]
Ann Coulter (born December 8, 1961) is an American political pundit famed for her extreme, wilfully ignorant, inflammatory versions of mainstream right-wing talking points. As such, Coulter effectively says what others in her political sphere are "really thinking" even going so far to say that Bill Clinton should be executed[2] and the USA should actually invade Canada.[3] Her attitude and style have led to her being labelled a lightning rod (and she has used some related metaphors in describing herself), with the main purpose of distracting liberal commentators from less-extreme conservative views. Even more amazing, by her own quote, she would deny herself the right to vote.
If you can find every single problem with American society and put them into one person, it's her.[4] Proceed with caution.
Ms. Coulter is so extreme, so off the charts, that some have suggested that she doesn't really mean it, that she's some sort of comic genius making a fortune out of baiting liberals, a Stephen Colbert who doesn't let anyone in on the joke.[5] However, others have pointed out the many ways in which she does really mean it and point out that her actions back up her vile rhetoric.[6] Coulter states that she is a Deadhead (ardent fan and follower of the Grateful Dead), and even proclaims that "Deadheads are what liberals claim to be, but aren't."[7] In danger of invoking No True Scotsman, though, we say the jury's out.
Coulter originally trained as a lawyer which may account for many of her unpleasant traits as with other off-the-edge right-wing commentators like Neil Boortz. Coulter became a political ambulance chaser, running after such fringe notables as Anita Hill and Paula Jones. She later developed a habit of turning upon potential clients who didn't toe her line, including Jones[8] and Hill.[9]
Ann Coulter has been accused of negationism through minimizing, denying, perverting, bending or simply ignoring basic facts. Writer John McNally comments "My new novel, America's Report Card, is dedicated to Ann Coulter, but it's not a warm and loving dedication. It reads, 'To America's Iago, Ann Coulter, for rewriting history to suit her own nefarious purposes'."[10]
Coulter has repeatedly come out in support of maintaining Confederate symbolism.[11] She has also misleadingly associated the Democratic Party (when it really should be the States' Rights Democratic Party) with the KKK and segregationist policies. You can't have it both ways, Ann.
Coulter's view on McCarthyism is her most dangerous attempt at historical revisionism. In an incredibly titled chapter "The Indespensable Joe McCarthy" of her book TREASON: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, Coulter portrays the figurehead of the the most severe period of cultural and artistic censorship in American history to be a victim of liberal persecution. "The myth of 'McCarthyism' is the greatest Orwellian fraud of our times," Coulter pounds "Liberals are fanatical liars, then as now. Everything you think you know about McCarthy is a hegemonic lie."[12] (Well sure, Ann, but you do know who invented the word "hegemony"?)
In 2001 Coulter was named one of the top 100 Public Intellectuals by federal judge Richard A. Posner.[13] Posner, an appointee of Republican president Ronald Reagan, provoked outrage in the legal community in 1999 when he contended that "the rule of law is an accidental and dispensable element of legal ideology" in an article in Raritan magazine, and caused another stir in an article that put forth the argument that buying and selling babies on the free market would lead to better outcomes than the present situation of government-regulated adoption.[14]
On April 1, 2009, Ann Coulter published in her Human Events article the following passage:[15]
Coulter got such a bizarre notion from an April Fools prank from the magazine Car and Driver.[16][17]
Rush Limbaugh, in a dumbfounding bout of stopped clocking, said "If you really want to pull something off, don't do it on a day where people are going to immediately doubt it. It's absolutely silly. Car and Driver has a phony page on the website saying Obama has banned Ford, Chevy, and a bunch of others from NASCAR. Well, now, who's going to believe this?"[17] Someone so clouded by hate she didn't bother to check out the story, obviously.
Coulter's Godless: The Church of Liberalism prompted a flurry of responses in skeptical circles due to its chapter on evolution ripped off from written with the "tutoring" of William Dembski and Michael Behe. According to Coulter, the "flatulent raccoon theory" in which a raccoon farts and creates the universe, is as likely to have happened as evolution.[18][19] It's not known whether she is a young Earth or old Earth creationist.
Ann Coulter seems to have taken a shine to the crank version of radiation hormesis. She wrote an article stating that radiation released during the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan was good for you and can reduce the rate of cancers (We are not making this up).[20] She then went on The O'Reilly Factor stating that "the scientific consensus has changed, but that the media are not reporting it." Bill O'Reilly for once was the voice of reason, pointing out the real dangers of radiation.[21] Many people started fund raising drives to send Coulter to the Fukushima reactor so she may experience the healing powers herself, but she hasn't taken anyone up on the offer.[22]
Ann Coulter said of the Sandy Hook massacre, that "only one public policy has ever been shown to reduce the death rate from such crimes: concealed-carry laws."[23]
Although most of Coulter's detractors, obviously, hold a less extreme point of view than she does, there are a lone few whom she cannot answer simply by yelling "LIBERAL!" at the top of her lungs.
John Lofton, a less-than-notable crank and latter-day Puritan associated with the U.S. Constitution Party, really let her have it on his blog:
Coulter accepted an invitation to give a speech at "Homocon," a conference sponsored by the gay Republican group GOProud. They are in favour of same-sex marriage and military service for open homosexuals, something that would be anathema to your more wingnut right-winger. Such as Joseph Farah, who claimed he dumped her because of "homoconflict."
Once news that the "right-wing Judy Garland" would be addressing the convention broke, WorldNetDaily dropped her as their keynote speaker at their "Taking America Back National Conference." Farah claimed he withdrew the invitation because Coulter no longer espoused the ideals he saw for the right, and he did not wish to be associated with the "radical and very 'unconservative' agenda" of GOProud.[25]
She is responsible for many crimes against the lumber industry in book form, including:
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Ann Coulter - RationalWiki
