I’m hesitant to return to the subject of Ann Coulter and her latest outrageous circus act — I said my piece over the weekend — but The American Mind’s Sean Hackbarth has published an interesting “open letter” to the Conservative Political Action Conference’s organizers. It’s been picked up and republished by a variety of other conservative bloggers.
I’d encourage interested readers to check out the whole thing, but a few points jumped out at me.
Ann Coulter used to serve the movement well. She was telegenic, intelligent, and witty. She was also fearless: saying provocative things to inspire deeper thought and cutting through the haze of competing information has its uses. But Coulter’s fearlessness has become an addiction to shock value. She draws attention to herself, rather than placing the spotlight on conservative ideas.
I’ve seen that latter complaint quite a bit, from several conservative bloggers — Coulter’s biggest problem, as demonstrated on Friday, is that she makes every event about her. Her lunacy ends up overshadowing everyone and everything else. For the last three days, no one has much cared which presidential hopefuls did well, or how well organized the conservative movement looked after the CPAC conference, because Coulter, in a manner of speaking, stole the show.
Of course, this concern kind of misses the point. This suggests the problem is not with Coulter’s bile, but with what Coulter’s bile does to the movement she represents. This doesn’t sound like a condemnation on the merits; it’s more of an expulsion of convenience.
What did people expect? Coulter disgusts people for a living. She was invited, and sought out by the audience, for the express purpose of saying stupid things. She disgusted people at last year’s CPAC — referring to Iranians as “ragheads” — so she was quickly invited back.
Hackbarth goes onto to say, however, that Coulter’s language and attitude is now “intolerable to us.”
Coulter’s vicious word choice tells the world she care [sic] little about the feelings of a large group that often feels marginalized and despised. Her word choice forces conservatives to waste time defending themselves against charges of homophobia rather than advancing conservative ideas.
Within a day of Coulter’s remark John Edwards sent out a fundraising email that used Coulter’s words to raise money for his faltering campaign. She is helping those she claims to oppose. How does that advance any of the causes we hold dear?
Denouncing Coulter is not enough. After her “raghead” remark in 2006 she took some heat. Yet she did not grow and learn. We should have been more forceful. This year she used a gay slur. What is next? If Senator Barack Obama is the de facto Democratic Presidential nominee next year will Coulter feel free to use a racial slur? How does that help conservatism? […]
CPAC sponsors, the Age of Ann has passed. We, the undersigned, request that CPAC speaking invitations no longer be extended to Ann Coulter. Her words and attitude simply do too much damage.
I suspect there’s a cumulative effect in play. It’s not that Coulter’s slur against Edwards was better or worse than every other stupid thing she’s ever said; it’s that her former fans are getting a little tired of her making them look bad.
As for whether or not any of this is going to work, the American Conservative Union, CPAC’s principal organizer, has not yet responded to questions about Coulter’s future participation. Stay tuned.
