JIM COHEN
Staff Writer
Recently, political commentator and right-wing ideologue Ann Coulter joked that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned. Admittedly a joke, the statement by Coulter proved once again that her rhetoric fails to meet even relative standards of decency, honesty or intellectual accountability.
For years Coulter has argued that the degradation of American society is because of “liberals” that espouse its beliefs. It seems that every problem America faces is because of liberals, and the only way to change it is by attacking their very existence. In this case, Coulter said a well-qualified and well-respected Supreme Court Justice should be poisoned because she doesn’t agree with the decisions he makes from the bench.
On Oct. 22, 2004, Coulter gave a speech at the University of Arizona, where she was attacked by two university students throwing custard pies at her as she stood on stage. After the students were apprehended, Coulter and other right-wing ideologues used the occasion to attack liberals and blame the incident on liberals.
The students who attacked Coulter were arrested and prosecuted for their crime. She was an innocent person attending a university as an invited guest. I condemn anyone for attacking an innocent person. However, by no means does this mean the students who attacked Coulter are liberal. People like Coulter use the word “liberal” to divert people’s attention away from the real issues facing the United States and to blame them for all of the problems we face as a nation.
Coulter has gone so far as to say that liberals are Communists and traitors to America. Such fervent language seems uncalled for when liberals have helped protect America from such threats. It was Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who decided to stand up against the Axis Powers and protect America from fascism, dictatorship and Nazism. It was Democrat President Harry Truman who committed U.S. troops to stop Communism from spreading through the entire Korean Peninsula. It was liberal President John F. Kennedy who was within minutes of attacking the Soviets because of the Cuban Missile Crisis. My paternal grandfather who would be characterized as a liberal, chose to fight in W.W. II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as he saw the bodies of people with the same last name as his. For him, that was personal.
Some of Coulter’s allies are complaining about the films nominated for the Oscars and have begun attacking Hollywood’s “liberal agenda.” They have attacked films such as “Brokeback Mountain” and “Capote” because they believe these films don’t share their “family values.” Instead of judging these films based upon their artistic ability, they attack them and the lifestyles they don’t agree with while offering no real insight other than bigoted remarks.
Many right-wing ideologues think America is controlled by a “liberal media” which has led to the nation’s decrease in morals and values. This seems to contradict Presidential Advisor Karl Rove’s statement that there is no “liberal media.” Soon after the 2004 Presidential Election, Rove was interviewed by Fox News and said the media is not liberally biased or even conservatively biased but that they are lazy and more focused on America’s “quick-fix” mentality rather than reporting real and substantive news. As scary as it may seem to agree with Rove, in this case, he’s absolutely right. So, if this is in fact the case, Coulter and other right-wing ideologues are incorrect and unwarranted in making people believe that the problems America faces are because of liberals.
Instead of valuing the differences and uniqueness of every American, right-wing ideologues like Coulter are more interested in devaluing and attacking Americans.
The truth is they are not interested in solving America’s problems because all they do is attack, attack and attack. All they are really doing is throwing pies.
02-16-2006