Coulter Culture

While publicizing her new book, If Democrats Had Any Brains They'd Be Republicans, Ann Coulter recently spoke with George Gurley of The New York Observer about her stand on particular issues (click here for parts of the interview). What she had to say about women particularly caught my eye (/made me want to hunt her down and knock some sense into her closed-off right-winged mind):

"If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.

It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it’s the party of women and 'We’ll pay for health care and tuition and day care -- and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?'"

Coulter often uses shock tactics like these to persuade people into her way of thinking. By condemning her own gender (essentially saying that she is willing to have her right to vote taken away because so many other women vote with their hearts and sense of compassion rather than their heads) she clearly emphasizes her disdain for Democrats. While in a sense it is effective verbal rhetoric, in my opinion, it is also an example of verbal rhetoric taken too far. In coming across as a woman condemning her own, she utilizes ethos to essentially say to others "as a woman, I can say that in fact we are too emotional and stupid to vote." A male may look at this as justification for not taking women seriously in politics, and it may even cause other females to doubt themselves. Coulter's words have the serious potential to set back a group that she herself is a part of, potentially (and ironically) diminishing her ability to be taken seriously in the political ring.

(The above photo did not appear with the article, but I find it particularly appropriate:).)