(Thanks to Lean Left)
Ann Coulter visits U.W.:
Coulter was asked why she condemns the terrorists so strongly, but not those who kill abortion doctors. She said that the latter have been extremely frustrated by the fact that they cant vote on this issue, thanks to Roe vs. Wade, and that they worked within the system for twenty years without success before turning to murder. She said that those individuals believe they had been left with no other routes for dissent in the face of an ongoing atrocity. Coulter further suggested that although she would not take it upon herself to take extreme actions on the abortion issue, she will not condemn those who do.
Date: 08/02/2002 00:00:00 AM
Great. Coulter reveals herself to be a root-causes conservative. If we only reversed Roe v. Wade, the clinic bombers would cease to bomb. I wonder if she thinks the white militias would all disband if we overturned Brown v. Board of Education. What else will it take to appease every ‘right-wing’ extremist?
Date: 07/31/2002 00:00:00 AM
“[Those who kill abortion doctors] have been extremely frustrated by the fact that they can?t vote on this issue”. I do agree to a certain extent with her frustration about not being able to vote on abortion – even though I would vote quite differently. In Michigan 30 years ago, we had a referendum about abortion on the ballot when Roe vs. Wade rendered it moot. I wasn’t all that happy about winning that way – I was all geared up for a great political battle, and I think we would have won if people had to vote directly on whether nearly all abortions were to be banned.But Coulter’s frustration is really directed somewhere else. She can vote for legislators who are against abortion, but even if they get a simple majority in state legislatures or Congress, they still can’t get very restrictive legislation past the courts. But there is a solution to that. If there was a national consensus against abortion, there would be enough votes in Congress and the states to pass a Constitutional Amendment. But I don’t recall anyone ever even seriously trying to get such an amendment passed. Why not? Oh, maybe there is no national consensus. Maybe, in fact, the only way a Congressman from a politically average district can posture against abortion without endangering his job at the next election is that the moderates and most of the pro-choice crowd consider other issues more important than what the congresscritter says about things he cannot change I wouldn’t be at all surprised if more than two-thirds of Congress talks like they are anti-abortion (in front of the right audience, anyhow). Isn’t that enough for an Amendment? Well, sort of, except that if they actually started working on an amendment, it would then become the key issue of the next election – and I think that central 50% of voters neither wants abortion completely banned, nor to require women to beg permission from some government agency.Coulter’s problem isn’t that she isn’t allowed to vote on abortion. It’s that she dislikes living in a Republic where violating people’s rights can require much more than a simple majority (if she’s right about where the majority lies), or a noisy pressure group whose fanaticism outweighs their small numbers (if I’m right).
Date: 07/31/2002 00:00:00 AM
Just when you think she couldn’t get more idiotic… Maybe if we lock her in a room for 6 months with nothing but the NY Times and the Nation, she’ll become a liberal and stop bringing the rest of us conservatives down.
Date: 08/02/2002 00:00:00 AM
Spot on, Joel.
Date: 07/31/2002 00:00:00 AM
I say that Ann Coulter and Ted Rall are ideological counterparts. Both are factually unreliable, uninterested in convincing anyone who doesn’t already agree with them, and focused on pulling the chains of their opponents. They’re the same – except for the detail that Ann is right-wing and Ted is left.One could also argue that Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore are also counterparts . . . .
Date: 07/31/2002 00:00:00 AM
That’s abominable! Self-willed blindness in the service of ideology.
Date: 07/31/2002 00:00:00 AM
Yes, and there’s a real democratic vote in all those countries where the majority of the terrorists come from … what planet is she from?