Saturday, August 27, 2016
Ann Coulter: Take seriously at your own risk. Just like Donald Trump…
I have long been waffling over whether to bother mentioning Ann Coulter’s cheerleading for Donald Trump, which began almost a year ago. Coulter is freakishly unethical and proud of it, a rare professional fick, whose shtick (I guess one shouldn’t use fick and shtick in the same sentence: sorry) is to pander to The Angry Right in such obnoxious and inflammatory terms that the Angry Left goes bananas with hate, thus selling books and providing her with media appearances to promote them. I have assigned her to the dark corner reserved for performance artists who posture and lie for a living, for that’s Ann. I have no idea what she really believes, just as I have no idea what James Carville, Milo Yiannopoulos or Rush Limbaugh really believe—and anyone who really thinks that they know what Donald Trump really believes is beyond redemption, since it is quite evident that he doesn’t know himself.
Thus when I heard that Ann’s latest book, doubtlessly written in about five hours of dictation and containing some measure of her trademark snark, which she is very skilled at, was called “In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!,” I was sorely tempted to express my disgust, especially since Coulter, an educated woman and a lawyer, actually stooped to using that mark of an illiterate, “awesome,’ like the book was authored by a modern day Gidget. But why play into Ann’s hands? This is why she writes this crap: to cause buzz on the net and cable so she can sell the books to right wing idiots who will be soothed by her calculated pose.
The title is an absurd, almost Orwellian (“War is Peace”) lie. Trump, as much as anyone alive, cannot be trusted regarding anything, especially to hold great power. The reasons for this are evident and undeniable, and have been so long before running for President, wrecking the Republican Party, threatening the United States’ public’s faith in democracy and handing the White House to the most corrupt candidate a Presidential race has ever featured was a twinkle in the Donald’s eye.
However, listening to Trump blather about immigration last week, and seeming to renege on his signature promise to depart each and every illegal immigrant, almost compelled one to direct massive schadenfreude Ann Coulter’s way. After all, it is Ann (again, who knows what she really thinks) who has argued that Republicans shouldn’t allow illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, no matter how long they have been allowed to stay here, because it will shift demographics toward the Democrats. Not that it is wrong to reward them for illegal conduct, mind you: Ann doesn’t care, officially, whether such a policy would be fair and ethical. She argues that Republican immigration policy should not be based on liberty, fairness, justice or any other ethical value, just politics and holding power….you know, like most Democratic policy. Coulter is so passionate on this point—at least she pretends to be—that Trump’s unyielding position regarding deportation all by itself was sufficient to make her one of his most vocal celebrity supporters, long before the Star Wars cantina collection of ficks, jerks, morons, low-lifes, cynics, felons, racists, boors and public laughing stocks that have followed. Then Trump, completely predictably, backtracks on even that, just as Ann commences a national book tour, with the book title trumpeting how trustworthy Trump is!
If I hadn’t banned “LOL” on Ethics Alarms, this would be the perfect time for me to use it.
The Washington Post’s Dan Drezner had almost too much fun mocking Coulter’s plight in his column, “Ann Coulter is currently experiencing every nonfiction author’s nightmare/Sympathy for the devil in Prada., especially as he noted these words at the beginning of the book:
“[T]here’s nothing Trump can do that won’t be forgiven. Except change his immigration policies.“
This is an acid test for Ann Coulter. If she has any integrity, if she has the best interests of her nation in mind, if she is a serious pundit and commentator rather than a venal troll, if she can be trusted in any way, she will immediately suspend her tour, give back her publisher’s advance, renounce her own words, and go on every radio and TV public affairs show that will have her to announce to her drooling followers that she, and they, and the Republic, have all been conned, betrayed and lied to by Donald Trump. He can’t be trusted. Like, and so, he’s like soooo not awesome, and she’s like bummed out about it totally.
Oh, don’t be silly. Ann Coulter has no more integrity than Donald Trump, indeed less. She’ll find some way to keep promoting the book, and him, until something more profitable comes along.
You can trust in that.
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Pointer: Ann Althouse