Enfant Terrible Ann Coulter Takes on the Liberals

Ann Coulter, chief prosecutor for American conservatives, continues to polarize with her latest book about the demonic liberals. Radar Redford is a true disciple. Redford, in his mid-fifties, has meticulously studied all the writings of his prophet. The amateur historian proudly displays the passages he underlined in Coulter’s latest book. “Her brain is encyclopedic,” he raves. He carries four copies of “Demonic” under his arm. He wants all four personally autographed by Ann Coulter. Redford waits patiently with about a hundred other pilgrims at the Heritage Foundation for her autograph; the conservative think tank near the Capitol has invited the controversial author to a book signing.

Fresh Anti-Obama Material

Right at the opening of the presidential campaign, Ann Coulter is giving her followers new arguments against Obama and his supposedly blue-eyed sympathizers. With her eighth book “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America,” the youthful 50-year old has come out with a follow-up to her earlier successful works. In one week, “Demonic” has gone to sixth place on the New York Times bestseller list. Following such works as “If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans” and “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)” she again takes on the root of all evil: liberals. She identifies “mob psychology” as a purely liberal phenomenon, lovingly practiced by the Democratic Party. “Democrats activate mobs, depend on mobs, coddle mobs, publicize and celebrate mobs — they are the mob,” Coulter writes in the introduction to her book.

That’s the sort of thing that drives her opponents into a rage while making her an icon of the American right. Immediately in the wake of the 9/11 attacks Coulter demanded Congress deport all foreigners of Arab origin back to their homelands. She verbally abused widows whose husbands had perished in the attacks, calling them “witches.” She accused some of the widows of being happy their husbands had been murdered so they could use their deaths for their own political agendas and against the George W. Bush administration. In college lectures, she encouraged Muslim students to ride camels to get around and philosophized on several television shows that she dreamed of a Christianity full of “perfected Jews.”

Coulter vs. Bachmann

But is a loud-mouthed blonde what the Republican Party really needs? Can an Ann Coulter inspire conservative voters to turn out in 2012? Political scientist John Karaagac of Johns Hopkins University says he doesn’t think the Republican Party will use Ann Coulter to achieve its goals. Karaagac, who has authored many books on Republican politicians, assumes that using such a polarizing figure as Coulter could turn off many Republicans. “I suspect that many Michelle Bachmann fans [the candidate supported by the tea party movement] aren’t happy with Coulter’s scintillating personality. From the political point of view, you should never let your messenger get in the way of your message under any circumstances.”*

Ann Coulter isn’t a suitable messenger for anything but her own messages. She loves to play the agent provocateur. She repels the American main stream, Democrats and Republicans alike, with her hate tirades, her caustic tone and her over-the-top self-confidence. She appears on camera rolling her eyes, calling opponents and interviewers alike idiots and crybabies who can’t take it, and both conservatives and liberals are hypnotized by her. There’s no better medium in which the Coulter phenomenon can flower other than television. Journalists visibly convulse when she attacks Democrats, Muslims, homosexuals, the media or Republicans-in-name-only. She carries on until the moderator, with visible relief, breaks for a commercial. Come what may, she neither admits mistakes nor regrets anything. And her fans love her for it.

Role Model

Here at the Heritage Foundation, Coulter is on her home playing field. Everyone here is familiar with her rhetoric, her arguments about intellectually challenged Democrats as well as inarticulate Republicans on her own side. They’re all familiar with her reflex gestures, how she likes to regularly toss her long hair from left to right and then back again. As soon as she comes on stage, she’s just Ann to her fans. Men and women, old and young, they all idolize her. Mothers want to adopt her, men want to invite her for a drink and young women want to be just like her.

Christina Camp, a 22-year old recent graduate with a major in Asian studies laughingly says, “If I were half as witty and intelligent as she is, I’d have a job by now.”* For Camp and fellow student Elizabeth Mejia, Ann is definitely a role model. She is a trained lawyer, graduate of prestigious Cornell University, successful author and national television star. Camp proudly says, “Ann taught me more than any of my professors. She made me into a confirmed conservative.”*

Among Her Peers

The two young women listen respectfully when Coulter advises the assembled college students not to take up law because law school is full of liberals. They applaud when she tells of how many former ecology activists she has converted into archconservative Republicans. They nod when Ann enthuses about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a stout Catholic that Ann hopes could be president in 2012. Up to now, Christie has declined to run. But Coulter trumpets that the economy is so bad and Obama is so vulnerable that any candidate could defeat him in the next election. Then she’s off to the book signing. Among her peers, she no longer needs to carry on with her piranha tactics. Here, she’s totally a businesswoman who is there to sell her books.

But everyone knows she’s capable of other things. Disciple Radar Redford knows her rituals, especially if she’s being attacked. Twenty years of Ann Coulter study have made him an expert: “She’ll tear the heart right out of your chest while you watch,”* he says.

And he smiles as if there’s nothing more beautiful than having a conservative blonde in high heels and skimpy clothes knock the stuffing out of you.

*Editor’s Note: This quote, accurately translated, could not be verified.