Topic: Politics & Elections
There’s one thing to be said about the candidacy of Donald Trump: It’s separating the real conservatives from the poseurs. Case in point: Ann Coulter, who has not only swallowed the Trump Flavor Aid but is positively bathing in it.
Coulter has been around since the Clinton Administration and I’ll admit that I’ve often enjoyed her rude, crude, take-no-prisoners slap-downs of the Left. She speaks aloud, and with relish, that which other people scarcely dare to think. After all, I’ve occasionally admonished myself, isn’t that exactly the sort of treatment that the hideous id monsters of progressivism so richly deserve? But Coulter’s act was getting old even before her new hero, The Donald, strode onto the political stage. And now that she’s turned her rhetorical artillery on erstwhile allies, it’s clear that Ann’s conservatism is just about as phony as Hillary Clinton’s laugh.
One can understand Captain Bombastico’s appeal to fed-up average Americans who believe, with reason, that they’ve been given the brush-off off by the nation’s governing class. Yes, their enthusiasm for Trump is deplorable. Let us remember, though, who prepared the ground for Trump: not just the Obamas and Clintons of the world but also people like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and John McCain and Karl Rove. I can’t help thinking sometimes that the Trump candidacy is exactly what this gang deserves. But the price of their penance comes high, for Donald Trump, citizen politician, is a destructive force. Authentic conservatives understand this—which is why, for example, National Review has come out so strongly against his candidacy.
On the other hand, there’s Ann Coulter. Her big issue for the last few years has been the menace of immigration, legal and illegal, which admittedly poses a serious problem. Though Trump has connected with disaffected Americans on more than one issue, there’s no doubt that public anger over immigration has fueled his ascent. As for Coulter, she has with her characteristic intemperance ripped the political establishment for its failure, nay refusal, to control the border or enforce immigration laws. She makes many fair points and some that aren’t fair at all. Like Ayn Rand, Coulter is a stranger to moderation or compromise. It’s her way or the highway—every time.
Then along came Donald. His proposals for dealing with border security and immigration range from the frivolous, through the cruel and malicious, to the impossible. He will fence off the US-Mexican border—and make Mexico pay for it. He will slap a ban on all Muslim immigration. He will round up and deport all eleven or twelve million illegal aliens. How he will do all this is left rather vague. We’re assured that clever dealing and smart management will miraculously banish all problems. It’s ridiculous, all of it—and Coulter absolutely loves it.
What’s the attraction? I suspect that Coulter is besotted with Donald Trump because, after all, they speak the same language. Finally—a politician whose rhetoric is just as crude, vulgar and vicious as her own! And he gets away with it! People actually cheer when he taunts his opponents with schoolyard insults! Yes, it turns out that Ann Coulter and Donald Trump were made for one another.
Still, you’d think that Trump not being a conservative would give Coulter pause. Nah! See, it turns out that she’s not a conservative either. In recent days Coulter has been excoriating those well-known pillars of the political establishment, National Review and Fox News Channel. The former’s sin was to editorialize against the Trump candidacy, pointing out that he is (a) no conservative and (b) a man of unpresidential temperament. The latter’s offense was, supposedly, to have subjected the candidate to unfair treatment. Trump pronounced himself “insulted” over questions posed by FNC’s Megyn Kelly: rather an audacious pose for a man in the habit of hurling ugly and misogynistic insults. Never mind that this magazine and this network have long been celebrated as bastions of conservatism. As far as Coulter is concerned they’ve sold their souls to the establishment and she hasn’t been shy about saying so.
Well, I shall not be shy in replying that by selling her soul to this down-market Mussolini Ann Coulter has cast off the mask of conservatism. Now we see her as she is—as she probably was all along—a shallow opportunist with a certain gift for invective but very little else to recommend her. I used to believe that she had her place on the Right—up in the nosebleeds, perhaps, but Ann’s voice always carried well. Now at a moment of crisis for conservatism and the country we find her by the side of Donald J. Trump.
Adios, Ann.
