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• Tuesday, June 6, 2006 10:24 AM

  A Simple Reason Why

  There are at least a couple of reasons why Ann Coulter ends up on TV. To make sense of it you have to look at what she offers from the right-wing perspective.

  The purpose of much of right-wing punditry and commentary is not rational argument. The purpose is to keep the faithful in a state of continual outrage and umbrage. You don't make people upset by moderate and carefully-considered statements. Rather, the more the pundit spits and foams at the mouth, the more upset and outraged become the faithful. Ann Coulter is kind of the political version of the Exorcists's Linda Blair. This is a case where the medium really is the message.

  The other purpose is that by staking out an extreme position, Coulter makes everyone else look reasonable, while at the same time moving the debate to the right. So Coulter can say "all liberals are evil and stupid." Then, a more "moderate" conservative voice can say "well, maybe not all liberals are evil and stupid." But the starting point of the discussion is that all liberals are evil and stupid.

  Thus, there should be no surprise when Coulter says that the 9/11 widows are publicity-grubbing millionaires enjoying the deaths of their husbands. This is what Coulter DOES. This is an intentional STRATEGY. It's a rhetorical trick, a nasty trick, but just a trick nonetheless. Once you know the trick she is completely predictable.

  —Mishima666 Read Mishima666's other letters
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