{"id":82006,"date":"2015-12-11T15:26:57","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T23:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=82006"},"modified":"2015-12-11T15:26:57","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T23:26:57","slug":"bigotry-sells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=82006","title":{"rendered":"Bigotry Sells?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Beinart writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Three days after Sept. 11, Ann Coulter proposed<\/a> that America \u201cinvade their [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity.\u201d A week later, she mused<\/a> that, \u201cCongress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all aliens from Arabic countries leave.\u201d To its credit, National Review<\/em>, which had published Coulter\u2019s column, said<\/a> it would no longer do so.<\/p>\n

But Coulter kept appearing on TV. And she remained just as bigoted as ever. Asked in 2003, whether airlines should offer \u201cMuslim-free air travel?\u201d Coulter responded<\/a> that, \u201cI\u2019m way ahead of you. I think airlines ought to start advertising: \u2018We have the most civil-rights lawsuits brought against us by Arabs.\u2019\u2019\u2019 Asked how Muslims would then travel, she responded: \u201cThey could use flying carpets.\u201d When a student from the University of Western Ontario told Coulter in 2010 that she didn\u2019t own a magic carpet, Coulter replied<\/a>: \u201cUse your camel.\u201d<\/p>\n

It gets worse. In 2006, Coulter said<\/a>, \u201cour motto should be post-9\/11, \u2018raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.\u2019\u201d On another occasion she said<\/a>, \u201cour motto should be after 9\/11: Jihad monkey talks tough; jihad monkey takes the consequences. Sorry, I realize that\u2019s offensive. How about \u2018camel jockey\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

Coulter is not a marginal figure. Since 9\/11, according to the liberal group Media Matters, she\u2019s appeared at least 192 times on CNN and MSNBC and a whopping 450 times on Fox. In that time, according to BookScan, she\u2019s sold 2.3 million books, more than four times many as David Brooks. A few years ago, a sympathetic profiler called her<\/a> \u201cthe Rush Limbaugh of the printed word … the most successful conservative writer working today. … No 21st century conservative writer\u2014male or female\u2014comes even close.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her exploitation of bigotry, Coulter is not only one of Trump\u2019s forerunners, she is one of his inspirations. Trump has called<\/a> Coulter\u2019s latest book, Adios, America! The Left\u2019s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole<\/em>, a \u201cgreat read.\u201d She\u2019s warmed up for him at rallies<\/a>. And she\u2019s claimed credit for some of Trump\u2019s most notorious lines. \u201cWhere do you think all that spicy stuff about Mexican rape culture came from?\u201d she tweeted<\/a> this summer. \u201c@realDonaldTrump got an advance copy.\u201d Coulter has been ahead of Trump on Muslims, too. This January, after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo<\/em> in Paris, she suggested<\/a> that \u201cmaybe you take a little pause in Muslim immigration for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Trump, Coulter gets away with it, in part, because she\u2019s considered an entertainer: \u201cBold, brash, provocative, talented, fearless, witty, and outrageous,\u201d in National Review<\/a><\/em>\u2019s words<\/a>. But her massive success\u2014fueled by massive media exposure\u2014has shown other conservatives that bigotry sells.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Beinart writes: Three days after Sept. 11, Ann Coulter proposed that America \u201cinvade their [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity.\u201d A week later, she mused that, \u201cCongress could pass a law tomorrow requiring that all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ann-coulter","category-islam"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t