I have to respectfully disagree with my blogging colleagues on the latest Ann Coulter controversy. Coulter was making a joke relating to the recent incident between Isaiah Washington and Patrick Dempsey in which he called Dempsey a faggot on the set during a heated argument. Washington then was more or less forced to check into rehab over the outrage that ensued once the media got wind of it. It is a classic case of political correctness gone amuck. Coulter was not eluding that John Edwards was gay, but rather making fun of his flagrant sissy-like behavior.
I think conservatives are overreacting to this on a major scale. Ann Coulter has a reputation for being a “shock-jock”, so to say. This is and has been her style for a long time now. Was it a sophomoric joke? Sure, but so what? She even admitted that herself last night on Hannity & Colmes. The media, of course, with their vial disdain for the right is capitalizing on that one sentence and making her out to be some sort of hateful bigot. If you listened to her entire speech you would know that she was not making derogatory comments about gays.
The reactions I am seeing here from a great number of conservatives is the result of years of political correctness embedded into our heads by the left. Either we have free speech in this country, or we don’t. Furthermore, I am very disturbed by Mr. Keene’s response to the letter sent to him by the CPAC bloggers:
“let me make it clear that ACU and CPAC do not condone or endorse the use of hate speech“
Hate speech? Since when do conservatives acknowledge the existence of hate speech? To accuse someone of “hate speech” you have to know what they are thinking at the time they make the comment and hence condemn them guilty based on their thoughts, just like the idea of a “hate crime.” Enter the “Thought Police.”
The Left in this country despises the Right and excommunicating Ann Coulter from the conservative movement is not going to make them hate us any less. It only plays into their politically correct world they’ve formed for us and will encourage them to come after us even more. I see this as no different than the left claiming we would have peace if we appeased the Muslim extremists in the Middle East and pulled out of Iraq and handed them Israel. Appeasement doesn’t work weather its terrorists or Government Tit sucking liberals.
So to be blunt, get over it already and stop running around screaming like a bunch of 12 year old girls. She said what she said. Life will go on.
