A case study:
Michael Scherer wrote that of the attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel February 10, "about half are overdressed college kids in pearls, blue blazers or striped ties, young Republicans who come to D.C. for the chance to flirt with each other, watch Ann Coulter act outrageous, and attempt to sneak cases of Bud Light into their hotel rooms -- the kind of students that collect internships like Mardi Gras beads."
The young'ns were treated to a lot of free Chardonnay and speeches by the likes of Vice Dick Cheney, Phyllis Shlafly, Newt Gingrich, and Lt. Colonel Oliver North. But their favorite was Coulter. FT said they made up two-thirds of Coulter's boisterous crowd. It was standing room only. According to the religious conservative website crosswalk.com, she received, "a rock star welcome." Her comments were the most enthusiastically received.
According to FT, "To a chorus of 'We love you, Ann', she launched into her trademark outrageous one-liners, denouncing moderate Republicans as "rats" and "Washington weenies."
"Libertarian Republicans fared little better," wrote FT's Caroline Daniel. "If you are going to be a conservative in America, you can't be a pussy," said Coulter. Asked to describe her most difficult ethical dilemma, she gave a loud sigh. "There was one time I had a shot at [President Bill] Clinton."
Then, talking about Iran possibly acquiring the bomb, she said, "Post-9/11 our philosophy should be: Raghead talks tough? Raghead faces consequences."
During the question and answer period, a young Middle Eastern man rose to explain that the Republican Party was trying to recruit Muslim voters. (He may have been one of those peopling the "Muslims for Bush" table in the lobby.) "Please, please, please don't say rag head," he pleaded. "Yeah, I made a few jokes at Muslims. They killed 3,000 Americans," she retorted to applause.
"Ms Coulter's positive reception was a reflection of the audience," reported FT. "Unlike the snowy-haired veterans at many European conservative party conferences, the CPAC crowd gets younger every year." It's not just that "we are winning. We have all the pretty girls on our side," said Ms Coulter, as she surveyed the room. "She threw out a lot of red meat and gets the kids fired up," Saul Anuzis, the chair of the Michigan Republican Party, said later....
"CPAC offers a chance to learn from other student activists and attend workshops," wrote Scherer. "Aspiring young politicians come to network and practice their two-handed handshakes. Potential presidential candidates come to cultivate their bases...."
Obviously they also come to practice being gross under the tutelage of the leading lights of the Republican right. The come wearing their insensitivity on their sleeves, to do a Scandinavian cartoonist one better in subjecting a whole people to verbal abuse and derision. Loosen them up with a little Chardonnay they can be quite brown-shirt-like.
Sure, Coulter herself is old news; not every nut case thing out of her mouth need be spread around. But a thousand or so supposedly educated young women and men, dressed to the eight and a half and aspiring to lead the nation some day cheering her racist garbage should be quite alarming. Something very stinky is going on in Washington and it was on full display that day at the Omni Sheraton....
The last paragraph does capture the real issue: it isn't that Coulter is a fascist creep and disturbed person (Cyberspace is full of them, and I have an apparently unique talent for attracting them!), it's that she has a large audience in the corridors of power; it's that she is training the fascist leaders of tomorrow with all the tried-and-true fascist rhetoric of dehumanization, racism, fear of the enemy, the need for (and desensitization towards) violence, the denigration of feminine traits, and so on. Seattle-based journalist David Neiwert has still done the best job I've seen of putting all the scary parts of the picture together.
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