The Evangelical Outpost has more on Ann Coulter’s comments at CPAC and the Coulterization of Conservatism.
There was once a time when such remarks would have had Mr. Buckley scrambling for the smelling salts to revive Mrs. Schafly. But now hearing such comments made in a conservative forum elicits little more than an embarrassed shrug and a whatareryagonnado shake of the head that says, “That’s just Ann.” Then they line up around the block for autographed copies of her book.
Our political culture has truly become debased when even conservatives now accept what James Q. Wilson has described as the elevation of self-expression over self-control. (Perhaps it is to be expected, though, of a movement that has replaced the wisdom of Russell Kirk with the soundbites of Rush Limbaugh.) We have heartily embraced the leftist ideal that we have an inherent right to be as stupid and as banal as we want. As the legal scholar Stephen Carter says, “When offensiveness becomes a constitutional right, it is a right without any tradition behind it, and consequently we have no norms to govern its use.
If we continue to support people like Coulter in our conservative movement, then we are no better than the left we we are working so hard against. I agree with Alexander that we must sever all ties with her.
