Ann Coulter's Shrinking Conservatism

Ann Coulter spoke at CPAC, but she didn't seem to have much to say. Oh, yes, some of her lines were funny. Like that Obama would be a good neighbor as long as you're not Chinese--he'd always be borrowing stuff. [video below]

But, Coulter had no serious content besides complaining about the unemployment rate. She couldn't even do much on that since her candidate, Governor Mitt Romney, has said he is for indexed minimum wage. The minimum wage is one of the all-time big job killers. (It is especially damaging to the poor and unskilled. Fortunately, in Romney's view they have a "safety net" so jobs for them don't matter so much, though Coulter did not mention that.)

Ann Coulter has cut the ground out from under herself in her groupie-like support of Governor Chris Christie. In her speech she claimed Christie is a once in a generation politician "taking on the evil empire of our day". For Coulter the evil empire of our day turns out to be . . . [drum roll] . . . public sector unions!?! What an idiotic comparison. How many gulags do public sector unions have and how many millions of people have they killed? Maybe this would make sense had Christie taken on really dangerous people like Jihadists or those who want to fundamentally change our way of life and impose sharia law. But, Governor Christie calls people worried about sharia law crazies.

Then, of course, what to say about Coulter's shrinking conservatism in order to support Romneycare? For Ann, conservatism now equals the 10th Amendment. If it's done by a state, whatever it is, it's okay. Apparently the only question for conservatives is about what the federal government does because the constitution allows states to do just about anything. (Well, maybe not slavery.) The view that the 10th Amendment is the preeminent determiner of political right and wrong is just plain incoherent.

Then there’s the hypocrisy of lecturing us on the need to have a candidate who can appeal to moderates and independents after years of famously railing against that standard. Ann Coulter has now taken up the same canard used to beat on conservatives, including Reagan, for decades. We were told in 1980 that Howard Baker and George H. W. Bush were much better candidates because they were more likely to win moderates and independents than Reagan who was a sure loser because of his conservatism.

Ann Coulter's fundamentals of conservatism have morphed to two notes: the 10th Amendment and winning votes from moderates and independents. It's a small vision, and, alas, not likely to win either conservatives or moderates and independents.



Second part of the speech and Q & A here.

H/T Noel Sheppard