Posted on 03/04/2007 1:23:17 PM PST by AmericaTalks
Is It Time For Conservatives To Get Vicious?
Two stories have surfaced in recent days which clearly indicate that the definition of what is considered viciousness in politics needs to be examined.
On his HBO program Real Time this past Friday, Bill Maher asked his panel why it was necessary for the Huffington Post to remove comments by readers regarding their disappointment that the recent assassination attempt on Vice President Dick Cheney failed. During the course of the conversation, Maher went over the top by saying in effect that the world would be a safer place if the attempt had succeeded.
Also on Friday, political pundit Ann Coulter, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, raised some eyebrows and a little laughter when she said "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot', so I - so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards."
Coulter is taking heat from both the right and the left for her remarks. John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have all denounced her comments. And of course, democrats are seething, although the Edwards campaign took the opportunity to raise donations, referring to contributions as "Coulter cash".
There is a tremendous difference between the remarks by Coulter and Maher. Maher implying that Cheney's assassination should have succeeded is by far more despicable than anything that Coulter could ever have uttered. Yet there is virtual silence regarding Maher's vitriol from anyone on the left, while Coulter has been getting it with both barrels from people on both sides of the aisle.
Perhaps it would benefit conservatives to start becoming more vicious. For far too long, those on the right have taken the high road when it comes to political discourse. Maybe we need more people like Coulter to start ramming epithets down the throats of these liberal monsters who have made the politics of personal destruction their mission. Maniacs like Terry McAuliffe, Al Franken and Howard Dean have lashed out in angry dialogue against conservatives virtually unchecked, while every comment regarding the left is expected to be couched in political correctness.
No more. It's time for the Right to get angry. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get down in the mud with these knuckle draggers and start giving them a taste of their own medicine unapologetically. Let's start calling a spade a spade and expose the evil of the Left once and for all.
I applaud Ann Coulter for the cojones she displayed in ripping John Edwards. I hope she continues to let the liberals have it at every available opportunity. And I sincerely hope more conservatives will wake up and start speaking out.
Ann Coulter...you go, girl!
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"Viciousness is driven by hate" -- and so it's clear you think Ann is "vicious," because of her joke.
I guess you've already surrendered to the left's definitions.
It's past time. A lot of conservatives will not acknowledge we are in a war.
Plus, vicious is not as boring as the other way.
Well .. I can't listen to Savage very often .. it's just too in-your-face for me. While what he says may be the truth .. his delivery just grinds on me.
I respond to Rush's style much better. I love his sarcasm.
Thanks for your very thoughtful reply.
Re: "It's too late for GOP." I believe I read somewhere in the Good Book that the Lord helps those who helps themselves.
Republicans have done little to help themselves. In fact, truth be told, the GOP is only a step or two behind the Democrat/socialists.
I don't see any Republicans trying to cut spending, reduce taxes significantly, reduce the size of government, restore Constitutional rule of law, deport illegal aliens or stop the invasion of illegal immigrants. I could go on.
How's this one (pssst, you know the target) "Death to the Islamofascists and their running dog lackeys".
There, I've said it ~ they know what that means ~ it's in their own slogan!
Sometimes Ann is fierce. Sometimes she is vicious. I like her when she's fierce; I don't like her when she's vicious.
Perhaps hatred is too strong a word to associate with viciousness, but I would posit that the line between fierceness and viciousness is crossed when a person makes an attack because attacking is fun, rather than because it was necessary to counter a threat.
Do you agree with me about the distinction between being fierce and vicious (see #79)?
I think I might rather say impassioned rather than fierce, but that aside, I think you have a good point there.
In coming up with the word "fierce", I was trying to find the word to best describe a mother defending her cub. To say the mother was "impassioned" would be far too mild, but to describe her as "vicious" would suggest that defense of her cub was secondary to her interest in attacking other animals.
If someone uses a shovel in self-defense because it happens to be the only weapon handy, striking one's attacker until they are clearly not a threat would be fierce. Continuing to beat them into a bloody pulp even after they are quite conspiciously dead would be vicious. Fierceness is good, but viciousness is not; coroner's-inquest problems notwithstanding, someone who continues beating an attacker who's already dead may fail to notice the other attacker sneaking up from behind.
Okay, fair enough. I think the basic point is good...we can go hard at these guys without hating them or being hateful ourselves.
When I was in Iraq my "battle buddies" and I had to dodge direct and indirect fire from the enemy. Now back home, I and my "battle buddies" the conservatives have to dodge verbal fire from a new enemy, the leftists. We have to fight fire with fire!! JessM
Ann Coulter has the right to free speech. She can say whatever she wants. She's not running for any office. I, personally would not have used the word "faggot," but something more like "dandy" or "poofter."
Here's what frosted me on that score. I was watching the last part of Hannity's America before the Half Hour News Hour came on, and they had a discussion about Maher vs Colter. The Maher "defender" actually said that Colter was a spokesperson for conservatives and should be taken to task for what she said, while Maher was "just" a talk show host. Can you believe that? Grrrrrrr!
I don't know that calling them that was invented by the WWII folks, after all it's just an abbreviation for Japanese. What they did was turn it into an epithet, a dirty word, if you will.
No, he didn't did he, and that makes him look even more like a genius for being able to turn such a simple line as "there you go again" into such a devastating political bludgeon.
My other personal favorite was his promising not to hold Mondale's youth and inexperience against him.
More than anything else, it was the insipid, effete snobbery of the checked pants country club republicans that lost the election this last time out, and I don't see things getting any better. Look at Tancredo. I find him refreshingly honest and he's getting marginalized by his own party. I'm not a lifelong republican. Until 9-11 I found them just as disgusting as the rats, and I'm just about back there again.
I haven't seen us win much in quite a while using your tactics.
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