Jews, Jesus and Republicans: Playing Ann Coulter's Game

To read Jon Wiener's most recent post, "[Expletive] the Jews. They didn't vote for us anyway": Republicans and Israel, click here.

The following piece was produced by the Huffington Post's OffTheBus.

When Ann Coulter remarked on CNBC that Jews should become Christians, it wasn't "a faux pas," and she wasn't being "an idiot," as many commentators suggested. Instead she was playing her game -- provoking her critics to get her into the media spotlight that helps sell her books. That raises the question: should the Republican candidates be asked whether they agree with Ann Coulter that America would be a better place if we were all Christians? Or is that simply playing Ann Coulter's game?

Many people are playing her game this time around: Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, denounced Coulter for speaking in "the classic language of anti-Semites throughout the millennia." The National Jewish Democratic Council asked broadcast news organizations not to give Coulter airtime. Then right wing talk radio got to yell at liberals for trying to deny Ann Coulter her right to free speech.

So it's happened again: Ann Coulter is controversial. Ann Coulter is important. We all need to take a stand for or against Ann Coulter's right to express her views, no matter how repugnant they may be.

But what if we ignored her latest publicity ploy? What if we didn't play Ann Coulter's game - again?

That would be a mistake, Tim Rutten argued recently in the LA Times. We need to press the issue on the candidates, and others, this time -- because, Rutten writes, "the implications of these latest remarks simply are too threatening to be allowed to stand."

Yes, it's worked for her many times before, propelling her books to the top of the best-seller list. Her readers buy her books precisely because they love the way she provokes liberals to screaming outrage. That's why in the past, when asked about our enemies in the Middle East, she said "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity"; that's why she insulted the 9-11widows.

But this time, Rutten argues, it's different. That's because Coulter's argument - that Christianity "perfects" Judaism, and that Jews need "perfecting" -- is the major theological underpinning of anti-Semitism (along with the notion to that the Jews killed Jesus). The Catholic church, and most Protestant denominations, have explicitly broken with that claim. The Republican candidates ought to do the same thing.

"It's a scandal that in this pluralist nation it falls to the voices of organized Jewry to make this case," Rutten writes, "because it is a case whose outcome is of the greatest consequence to us all. For too long we've pretended that the brutal political rhetoric that now characterizes our partisan politics can be quarantined, that it won't inevitably leach over into every other aspect of our lives."

So it would be good to ask Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and their rivals: Ann Coulter is a best-selling Republican pundit; do you agree with her that the ideal America is a Christian America?

Read more OffTheBus coverage here.

Comments

[CJC]

Ms Coulter really belongs more on "The Addams Family" than in any arena of serious discourse. And that is how she should be treated, same as Morticia, Cousin It, Fester or any of the other characters. As longs a she stays at the mansion she can do what she wants but once she ventures out the public can't but help notice that she is frankly sort of a freak.

Thankfully the Republicans will not succeed in creating their one party state where in an alternative world she would be head of the “Department of Homeland Information” and sit next to Governor General Cheney at the 2010 Olympics (as her heroine Unity Mitford did at the 1936 Olympics).

[glesslib]

Ann Coulter just proves how far someone can go with a $300 dye job, the need for a few good meals, and a really nasty mouth.

America worships attractive people. She meets today's standard. If she was an overweight woman, didn't spend a fortune on clothes and hair, she would just be considered a miserable "pushy broad".

Rosie O'Donnell can tell you how she'd be treated by the right if she didn't meet media standards for appearance.

To paraphrase an old saying, though, "Beauty is only skin deep....Na­sty goes all the way to the bone."

[squarebird]

Okay, I am flummoxed by this 'controversy'. I have not considered myself a Christian for about 40 years, but one thing I am pretty clear on .. Christianity is ALL ABOUT converting Jews, fallen Christians, pagans, atheists, etc to Jesus. (This can be annoying to some, but much more civilized, I think, then the Muslim policy of simply killing unbelievers). It isn't done out of 'hate' for Jews, but rather the ultimate compassion of saving souls for all eternity. Though it may be called silly, it is definitely not hateful.

[xaneel]

Ann who?

Next please!

[Giglawyer]

Exactly. Why is Ann Coulter newsworthy?

[djginsberg109]

I agree, that we should not award Coulter with the attention, she so madly craves. On the other hand, we need to pay attention to the bigotted media, that also thrive on the attention, they give her.

There is no way a consumer boycott will drive her out of American discourse, but we could put the pressure on the media, as was done in the case of Imus. Hit them in the pocket book and they will come.

Meantime, we should be her well intentioned, but errant enablers.

"Revenge is mine, saith the Lord."

David Ginsberg, MD

[deminmo]

Ms Coulter is in some ways a "shock jock". Without controversey she would be boring. She told O'Reilly that she was on his show to promote her book, and that is what she is doing.

Should we ignore her? Maybe. Should she get
censored? If you do, then what happens to Rush,
O'Reilly and all the others who say inflamatory
things all the time? The best revenge is to not
have her on shows, and to have little action
on her book.

[jimpryor99]

Umm, genius...A­ll Christians are tasked with the duty to convert the lost. Just because YOU don't think you're one of the lost doesn't change the Christian calling.

[VivaZapata]

Ah, the healing power of religion, fully realized on these pages! God damns all who speak for Him for they are the ones who seek to destroy that which He hath created.

[dkm]

Remember a bit ago when Mrs. Edwards called in to Hardball while Coulter was running off at the mouth and suggested that she should clean up her act? Coulter went into a tizzy about having her freedom of speech curtailed and whatnot. Matthews, to his credit, tried to tell her that Mrs. Edwards wasn't trying to curtail her freedom of speech, but rather was trying to get her to elevate herself to a civilized level. He didn't put it in so many words, but what he said was that she should get out of the gutter. Maybe more people should make that point while she is foaming at the mouth.

A positive aspect of Coulter is that, while she gets the sludge of the rightwing excited, decent people who hear her may laugh at first if they are of the Republican persuasion, but they go away feeling unclean and later are more receptive to counterargument. Decent people don't keep going back to hear her very often.

[areacode631]

Matthews is a sleazeball partisan who set her up. Thats how the commies operate!

[squareyellowpaper]

Joe Lieberman is the only Jew in America who trusts the Republicans. Joe just doesn't understand that they really can't stand him.

The Christian Republican base justify all of their bigotry, hatred, and racism in their beliefs. They say they do it in the name of Jesus! Go figure.

If America was a Christian theocracy, every group from the Catholics down to the Southern Fundies would be struggling for power. It is disgusting to hear what they say about other groups in the name of righteousness.

[muonkan]

It should be the opposite. Those Christians who believe blindly in the bible should convert and become Jews since that book in which they are depicted as the elected people is a product of the Jews culture. There is nothing in common between Jesus Christ faith(based on love, forgiveness and understanding) and the faith underneath the bible (based on rage, hate, revenge and discrimination). There are not elected people in Jesus Christ eyes, we are all brothers.

[kellimum]

Have you ever read the Bible? Jesus was Jewish. He died for all of humanity. He died to bring forgiveness to us, so that we would not one day feel the wrath of God.

[thenewdawg]

Ann Coulter??? No comment (yeah, it takes discipline).

Steven

[madnana]

The irony of her comment seems to be lost in the moment. If one can say with a straight face (or a pinched one, as I always imagine Coulter has) that Christianity perfects Judaism, then why is it not equally valid to assert that Islam perfects both? If we accept unquestioningly that Christ was (and is) the Messiah, it is equally reasonable for Muslims to assert that while Jesus was a great Prophet, that Mohammed is the last one?
Abraham (or Ibrahim as he is called among Muslims) is the father of all three faiths.
I bring this up because Ms. Coulter (loathsome creature that I believe her to be) raises an intriguing point. I also believe it is one that Republicans should be called upon to repudiate so that the Christian Right has to make some very hard choices. Is it any less unreasonable for Muslims to call for the conversion of Christians than for Christians to call for the conversion of Jews (or Muslims, for that matter)? It is time some theological and historical confrontations took place in this country instead of our sweeping hard issues under the political rug.

[BoulderSue]

For Heaven's sake ! I hear her newest book isn't doing so well, so she still has to call attention to herself in any way she can. That's all she's doing. I've said it before: ignore her and she'll go away!

[jimpryor99]

Actually, her new book will debut at #1. So you "hear" wrong.

[deminmo]

OJ"s book flew off the shelves after all the coverage. That doesn't make it good literature.

[slats]

Enough is enough! When will we learn that all she wants is to sell books and will do or say anything to get publicity. We fall for it every time. Don't guy her books and she will go away.

[ch4r1iegr1]

But this is the society of SPECTACLE. The dumbed down masses LOVE a spectacle and Ann Coulter makes one of herself every time. The bell rings and the consumers in front of their televisions salivate. It takes more and more outrageous shocks to keep amusing Americans. Most of us has information overload and marketing pollution in our head so bad that Ann is still the only thing that truly gets our attention. Ignorance sells. Look at Hollywood.