can someone tell me about ann coulter?

Hmm...

I think you're conflating as well. "Democrat" is not synonymous with "proponent of big government".

The fact is, Republicans elected Bush/Cheney; ya'll have to accept responsibility for what they did. It would be nice if you could say, "well, they really screwed up so they must be crypto-Democrats", but even if you say it, it doesn't make it true.

Some of the freakiest far-left, anarchist eco-freaks are almost indistinguishable from Libertarians....

everything is fair when your discussing politicians, and i'm much more of a socialist than liberal, i am after all canadian

and i'm a really nice guy

I have often said they screwed up. I have not correlated that with them being 'cryto-Democrats', however so whether or not you would think it nice for me to say that, it wouldn't be honest.

Ann Coulter (and Rush Limbaugh) do the country a great service. By pushing "conservativism" (whatever that means now) to the extreme right... they are marginalizing the right-wing movement. The result is that the rest of us can move the politics of the country forward.

By comparing illegal immigration with rape (as Coulter so eloquently does in article that Foxy posted) she drives the debate far beyond and nuanced discussion about the real issues. The conservative arguments become so simplistic and ludicrous that they are easy to reject.

Coulter does this on issue after issue-- gay marriages destroy society, minority rights is "racism", Islam causes terrorism... they are extreme views that are swallowed by a small minority of Americans, but are easily rejected by anyone with a little bit of decency and common sense.

The backwards right wing in this country is being marginalized as the country pushes forward-- and Ann Coulter is in the forefront of this process.

I guess we should thank her.

I agree. Most of the time you are a really nice guy.

I disagree that 'everything is fair' when discussing politicians. I think it is fair to criticize where criticism is warranted and give credit where credit is due, and I think honorable people do that. I don't think it is fair to accuse people of what they have never done or said/intended nor to give credit to those who don't deserve it.

And of course hateful adjectives attached to people in spoken and written word may be the honest opinion of the speaker or writer, but it is always interesting to note that those who most vehemently condemn Ann Coulter as a purveyor of hate speech will use the most hateful speech in their condemnation.

But when asked to report something Coulter said in context as an example of her 'hate speech', few will even attempt it. But they'll show up on the next Coulter thread--and there is always a next Coulter thread--offering their opinion that she is a hateful bitch, the queen of mean, yadda yadda when I would daresay most have never read more than a tiny fraction of the stuff she writes, if even that.

I certainly don't agree with or even approve of her perspective on everything, and I will say so when that happens, but I also believe in giving credit where credit is due and she writes some good stuff.

How does Ann relate illegal immigration to rape? That is interesting.

She didn't but we are observing another illustration/point flying right over Advocate's head. That's what makes it so easy for her to poke fun of liberals.

Advocate... are you a Coulter fan? I would find that quite amusing.

But you see, a thinking 'conservative' would immediately see that the correlation was to law enforcement and not amnesty.

"Liberals" obviously often read differently than other people though. But that's okay. As I said, it makes it so easy for Coulter to make fun of them which is her primary stock in trade.

It is also why it is so easy for us liberals to make fun of Coulter.

My main point is that conservative ideology is becoming more and more marginalized-- and Coulter is speeding this process. There are a small percentage of true believers who think Coulter is funny and intelligent, and the rest of us think she is ridiculous.

Coulters fans are the true believers... I suspect that she, herself, is not one of them.

She just realized that she could make lots of money off people who swallow this stuff without much thought.

I don't have a problem with this.

I'm not sure such a breed exists; although I suppose that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

My point however is she is 'ridiculous' only because she makes fun of liberals and those who identify themselves as 'conservative' but behave as liberals. Her stock in trade is to take on the 'ridiculousness' if you will of liberalism, its excesses, its flaws, its irrational basis for things, and the consequences of the combination of all that.

I would bet a very good steak dinner either home cooked or at a good restaurant that if she was lampooning conservatives on a regular basis, the liberals on A2K would be applauding and defending her and wouldn't think her ridiculous at all.

I accept that you believe she is 'ridiculous'. But I have yet to see a good rationale of how or why she is ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with her--I disagree with her at times myself--but I haven't seen anybody provide a good illustration for how she is irrational or is using faulty data. In fact I don't think I've every seen anybody identifying himself/herself as 'liberal' who has been able to show how her conclusions are wrong. (I've seen a few conservatives do that with varying degrees of success though.)

If your point is that one's view of Ann Coulter; whether she is witty and intelligent, whether she is cynical, or whether she is a boorish clown, is subjective (i.e. based on your own background), of course you are right.

You are wrong that I will cheer everyone who bashes conservatives. I don't like all "liberal" personalities the same... there are some that I find particularly intelligent, and others I find boorish.

Coulter is very popular with a very narrow (almost exclusively conservative Christian) subsection of society. Her game is to make her fans happy-- at the cost of turning away most other parts of society.

In effect, her rhetoric further isolates and marginalizes conservative Christians. Again, I don't think this is a bad thing.

If I were a Conservative, I am pretty sure I would want to figure out how to reach out to more Americans and make my ideals more attractive to a larger part of society.

Coulter does the exact opposite.

This is why I, as a liberal, have no problem with Coulter being a prominent spokesperson for the "conservative" movement.

Coulter also said that conservatives are better in bed because they take sex more seriously. Foxy, what do you say to that?

I would take issue with her statement. No one takes sex more seriously than the libs I know.

"Every single book she has done has become an instant best-seller," said Bob Wietrak, a vice president for merchandising at Barnes & Noble. "Her fan base is phenomenal and she is in the media constantly. When she is in the media, it creates more media coverage. And every single day, the book sells more."

Doesn't sound like a narrow sub-section fan base to me. I doubt you can find any justification for your opinion re who Coulter's fan base is, either.

Dunno. Put the quotation in context and I'll see if I have an opinion about it though.

Do you know how many copies have to sell to make a book a best seller? Not too damn many. Less than .1% of the US population has to buy a book to make it a best seller.

Foxfyre... what DrewDad said. I don't think it takes more than a few hundred thousand fawning fans (out of 300 million Americans) to make all of your books into instant best-sellers.

I bet 99% of her fanbase are Conservative Christians and 90% of them are white. I understand this narrow demographic quite well since in my youth I was part of it (i.e. I was a fervent white conservative evangelical). This is part of the reason I hold her fans in such low esteem.

It doesn't take much to make a best-seller when they're sold at gopusa and newsmax for a buck a pop. I get the offers daily. I'll wait til I find a copy on the bus or subway. Thanks anyway.

She's an interesting cultural phenomenon.