posted on March 7, 2007 12:16:09 PM new
The asterisks are mine, to emphasize some of the points I think are terrific.
Guest Columnist
TimesSelect Think Naughty, Think Small, Think Not
By JUDITH WARNER
Published: March 7, 2007
Ann Coulter’s use of the epithet “#*!@” to slur Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards last week took me back to the schoolyards of the 1970s, when Coulter and I were both young.
There were plenty of words like “#*!@” being thrown around back then. There was “faggoty,” for example. “Retard.” And “spaz” — or “total spaz,” the rhythm of which rang through her words last year, when Coulter dismissed Al Gore on MSNBC as a “total fag.”
The world of playground insults hasn’t altered much since Coulter’s schooldays, but the larger world has changed a bit. She made her remarks during a major gathering of conservatives in Washington that drew most of the major Republican presidential candidates, and commentators of the left, right and center soundly denounced her.
Even Michelle Malkin, Coulter’s fellow pinup girl on the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute’s 2007 “Great American Conservative Women” calendar, blasted her words as “rhetorical fragging” and a “tired old schtick.”
We shouldn’t be content, though, to let it go at that.
Leaving the issue of not-so-latent homophobia aside — dwelling upon it, in this context, is a matter of shooting ducks in a barrel — what I found particularly shocking in Coulter’s comments was their studied juvenility, ***the sheer idiocy of their language. “#*!@” and “total fag,” like other political pearls of our time — such as “bring it on” and “girlie men” — are just epoch-making in their stupidity.*** In fact, they sound like lines out of Mike Judge’s 2006 film “Idiocracy,” a political satire that I rented a few months ago and can’t seem to get out of my mind.
In “Idiocracy,” a man the Pentagon has chosen for his perfectly average intelligence is sent into the future and finds the America of 500 years hence inhabited by people so grotesquely moronic that they can barely grunt utterances greater than “Man, whatever!”
Those future Americans have, however, held on to a full arsenal of obscenities and ****repeatedly tell the hero, who speaks in full sentences, “You talk like a fag.”**** As the film plays out, it’s the People vs. the Fag — the ***very dynamic that Coulter establishes when she connects to her audience via their inner 13-year-olds.[!!!!!!!]***
All this led me this week to think of Frank Luntz, the hot political consultant and wordsmith who wrote the lyrics for the 1994 Republican revolution. In his new book, “Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear,” Luntz puts forth the argument that using the “uplifting, ennobling tone” of famed political scribes like Ted Sorenson and Peggy Noonan is not the best way to capture the attention of Americans today. Instead, to communicate with the people — the real people of “small town, middle America” — and to speak straight to their hearts, minds and entrails, you’ve got to put “yourself right into your listener’s shoes.”
In other words, think small. “Use Small Words” is Rule 1 of his strategy for successful communication. Rule 2: “Use Short Sentences.”
Luntz has a doctorate from Oxford; Coulter has degrees from Cornell and the University of Michigan Law School. Conservatives generally like to run with the idea that liberals are elitists, living “in a world of only Malibu and East Hampton,” as Coulter’s recent blog posting on the “crock” of global warming put it. But isn’t there something elitist, if not wrong, I wondered aloud to Luntz, about condescending to — or coddling or enabling — the imagined verbal limitations of the less-educated “other”?
Luntz did not much appreciate the question.
“It’s not condescending — it’s pandering,” he said of Coulter’s most recent performance. “Everything about the book says what she did was not just wrong but reprehensible. Those aren’t words that work. She broke every rule.”
“God, I really hate it every time she speaks,” he fumed. And, he added, if I were to even think of mentioning him in the same breath as her, “I will really, seriously raise hell.”
At a Conservative Women’s Network lunch at the Heritage Foundation last week, a question was raised, over dessert, about how conservative women should deal, “as women,” if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for president. The guest speaker, Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer in Washington, hemmed and hawed, shared some thoughts about Wellesley College and Barbara Bush, blushed, then concluded, “We’ll let the redneck guys who just aren’t ready to vote for a female commander in chief take care of the woman thing.”
Sounds like a plan. Sounds to me, too, like the Republican noise machine may just have a monkey wrench in its machinery.
Judith Warner is the author of “’Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety” and a contributing columnist for TimesSelect. She is a guest Op-Ed columnist this month. Maureen Dowd is off today.
_____________________
People who want to share their religious views with you almost
never want you to share yours with them.
posted on March 7, 2007 06:14:35 PM new
I like it, too, but those poor neocon women!
"""At a Conservative Women’s Network lunch at the Heritage Foundation last week, a question was raised, over dessert, about how conservative women should deal, “as women,” if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for president. The guest speaker, Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer in Washington, hemmed and hawed, shared some thoughts about Wellesley College and Barbara Bush, blushed, then concluded, “We’ll let the redneck guys who just aren’t ready to vote for a female commander in chief take care of the woman thing.”"""
My lord! THEY are calling someone ELSE a redneck.....as if that whole statement isn't as backwards as it gets....
I wonder if their husbands allow them to vote and own property ????
Can anyone explain what the the phrase
""“as women,” if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for president."""
actually means ???? Obviously even one of their own couldn't answer that.....what backwards, brainless, empty headed baboons conservative women must be !
posted on March 7, 2007 11:26:05 PM new
Glad you enjoyed the column. I think it's one of the best I've seen in a while. It's been difficult for me to put into words why Ann C's vocabulary is so repugnant to me. I especially appreciate these:
--->>"Those future Americans have, however, held on to a full arsenal of obscenities and repeatedly tell the hero, who speaks in full sentences, “You talk like a fag.” As the film plays out, it’s the People vs. the Fag — the very dynamic that Coulter establishes when she connects to her audience via their inner 13-year-olds."
--->>"What I found particularly shocking in Coulter’s comments was their studied juvenility, the sheer idiocy of their language. “#*!@” and “total fag,” like other political pearls of our time — such as “bring it on” and “girlie men” — are just epoch-making in their stupidity."
Those of us who agree about Coulter need to keep these statements in mind. They really say it all.
_____________________
People who want to share their religious views with you almost
never want you to share yours with them.
posted on March 10, 2007 02:33:30 PM new
Again....more hypocritical articles from lefties who NEVER were bothered by ANY of the terrible things the liberal MSM and millions of chat boards were calling this President...and VP...taking it so far to wish death upon BOTH.
But THIS they'll write millions of articles/posts about.
If only they had the ethics for it to be 'wrong' NO MATTER who these things are said to or about.
But that's NOT the liberal/dem way. Nope....always their double standards. One rule for them...another for the others.
LOL NOT!!!
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on March 10, 2007 03:11:12 PM new
While the dems/liberals just get enraged by whatever Ann Coulter says......[proves she's pointing out their actions AGAINST America.
And imo, one of her BEST books was Treason.
There she points out how the liberal left HAS ALWAYS fought AGAINST American policy/values/ethics/etc. AND sided with our enemies.
It's their MO. tsk tsk tsk
============
Treason
by Ann Coulter
As usual, Ann Coulter gets right to the point.
"Liberals have a preternatural gift for striking a position on the side of treason," she begins this book. "You could be talking about Scrabble and they would instantly leap to the anti-American position.
Everyone says liberals love America, too. No they don't. Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence."
And I agree with that statement 110%.
They acted the same way during WW11, The Korean war, the vietnam war, the cold war, and NOW.
And some want to put their trust in the dem party to protect America????
What fools they are.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on March 10, 2007 03:19:11 PM new
She's every Democrat's best friend. The more strident, the more ugly, the more hateful and bigoted her spew, the more she mirrors the White House's despair and the more she points to the Rightness of voting against these thugs and the party that hides and makes excuses for them. I love the Coultergeist more than ever.
posted on March 10, 2007 03:57:49 PM new
I understand, profe.
You are one with those double standards also.
tsk tsk tsk
Never a word when much worse is said about the President or VP. Nope....liberal ethics are only one sided.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
