Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:45 pm
I’ve come to the conclusion that the Republican presidential hopefuls for 2016 should be treated like a bunch of kids. Yes, and everyone around them. Like Ann Coulter.
Maybe especially Ann Coulter.
This is a woman who, because Carly Fiorina dared oppose her hero Donald Trump’s immigration plan, says now, “I’ve turned against [her] as of yesterday with the hot, hot hate of a thousand suns.”
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Coulter, you see, with childlike hyperbole, had tweeted that Trump’s plan “the greatest political document since the Magna Carta.”
Yes, that’s right. Not the United States Constitution, but Trump’s immigration plan.
And the hot, hot hate of a thousand suns. Really. You can’t just settle for raising cogent objections to her policies positions? You know, like an adult?
“At first, I admit I was suspicious because I hate this, ‘Oh, a woman can talk, oh, isn’t that’s great?'” she announced on Tuesday’s Mike Gallagher Show.
Which is really weird sounding coming from a woman, isn’t it?
Perhaps Coulter doesn’t see her self as a woman. Or perhaps she doesn’t realize she could be as easily talking about herself when she complained,
“But I just hate this affirmative action among Republicans. Look, Republicans, you’re very sweet people. I love that you’re trying to promote someone because, ‘oh, oh, oh, it’s a woman,’ but, women can talk! It’s not breaking news.”
Coulter certainly doesn’t see that she’s revealing more about herself than Fiorina. After all, Fiorina actually said, at the Iowa State Fair, that she supports aspects of Trump’s immigration plan. Heck, Breitbart even crowed, “WSJ Cant get Carly Fiorina to criticize Donald Trump on immigration.”
Over-reaction much? Perhaps what really got in Coulter’s craw is Fiorina saying last Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that, “Well, you know, it’s not clear to me that Donald Trump is a Republican, first of all, based upon his willingness to run a third-party bid, and some of the positions that he’s taken.
This, apparently being her response to Trump saying earlier at the Iowa State Fair that “She’s a very nice woman, she got fired, she did a terrible job at Hewlett-Packard.”
Fiorina can’t realistically defend her record at HP, so she calls Trump a not-Republican.
I’m not sure that works out to be an insult.
And then there is the little tête-à-tête Coulter had with GOP consultant Rick Wilson on Twitter the other day.
You won’t see this sort of thing happening with public figures surrounding Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Rick Wilson had gotten into it with Breitbart, not known for its own mature behavior, for calling Trump supporters “low-information voters” when he appeared on CNN last Friday with Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow.
Don’t even ask yourself why Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow was invited onto CNN. Forget about that for a minute, if you can. Or questions as to how an outfit like Breitbart, which makes stuff up to substitute for using actual news and facts, can even have a “News Editor-in-Chief.”
This “low-information” stuff in itself is funny enough – one Republican calling another Republican a “low-information voter,” given they all get their “news” from the same place, the low-information source, Fox News. It’s sort of like Ann Coulter accusing other people of being in the “idiot brigade.”
So I’m not even sure what the insult means, but some folks took offense.
I mean, look who Trump is blowing kisses to: Hello, Ann Coulter. So Coulter took it personally – because after all, she doesn’t write for “stupid people” – and she wasn’t alone. The personal attacks mount, and Wilson complained on Twitter than a Breitbart reader threatened to rape his daughter.
This is a completely believable charge. We’ve all seen conservative trolls act this way online. It probably happened here. Wilson was right to be upset.
But he was mocked for it. Of course. When you don’t have any actual factual arguments to make, you mock. So he got accused of using his own daughter as a prop (which is apparently worse than threatening to rape her and definitely worse than a Duggar molesting his own sleeping sister).
Breitbart, classy as always, actually accused him of politicizing the rape threat against his daughter.
Enter Coulter, and this exchange:
Yes, he went there, but you might say he was provoked. You might even want to cheer him. But remember, this is Ann Coulter, a political analyst for Fox News, calling Rick Wilson, who appears on CNN as a political analyst, “a girl in a pink party dress” because he objected to a threat to rape his daughter.
Yes folks. Modern conservatism at its best.
So Rick Wilson responded in kind, and they were instantly a couple of kids slinging mud at each other on the playground. And it wasn’t adorable.
Breitbart says they “reached out to Coulter” about the “anal” tweet, and she replied that Wilson’s “only remaining move is to use the Anthony Weiner ‘MY TWITTER ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED!’ defense.”
Wilson actually ended up apologizing for acting like a child. Coulter did not. Wilson correctly labeled Coulter’s remark about his daughter “vile” (which applies to just about everything Coulter says):
1/ In the course of today, and in response to an vile tweet from @AnnCoulter, I failed to maintain the standards I set for myself.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 18, 2015
He continued in further tweets to say, “I reduced myself by dropping to her level. My comment was shocking to many of you, and for that I offer a sincere apology.”
Which was probably the first adult thing said since the original analysis given on CNN, and Carly Fiorina’s legitimate criticism of Trump’s immigration plan.
And to which, in response, Coulter could only continue her childish commentary:
Now Anthony Weiner's penis is hacking Rick Wilson's twitter account. #RickWilsonsHighStandards https://t.co/wUR4Xyzp15
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) August 19, 2015
She apparently can’t help herself. And nobody else can either.
So there you have it: Kiddie Time at the GOP 2016. Fox should pick it up as a sitcom.
Oh wait. They created it. And it’s not a sitcom. It’s real. And real in a terrifying way that reality shows are not.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
