Last Thursday was national “coming out” day.This Monday is national “disown your son” day.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) October 16, 2012
I have a theory and it goes something like this:
The real Ann Coulter is an old-school, died-in-the-wool, Berkley liberal, and what we have seen for the past decade or more is just an extended piece of performance art, in which she attempts to embody and personify everyone’s worst stereotypes of conservatives.
If that were indeed her goal, she would have succeeded brilliantly. Sadly, she appears to be sincere.
Coulter also appears to be oblivious to her effectiveness as a recruiting tool for the left. With every tweet, editorial, and book, she preaches to the converted while giving liberals all the scary quotes they need to pad their voter registration numbers. She also has the effect of making Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity all look statesmanlike in comparison. Next to her, the other talking heads at Fox News are bastions of journalistic integrity, the reincarnations of Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite.
I wonder if anyone has tried to impress upon Ann that less toxic levels of vitriol would make her a more effective communicator. If so, it has fallen upon deaf ears. Even if she wrote a book about the Satanic Communist branch of NAMBLA, she would be hard pressed to match, much less exceed, the level of acidic derision she heaps upon the Democratic party. When it comes to the playground bully school of political name-calling, she is the far right’s triple black belt ninja master.