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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NO! I don't think you have to be "vicious" .. just truthful and stop cowering to the liberal media.
We should start responding in kind when dems attack our candidates, but I don't see how being aggressively vicious like Coulter really helps. I don't think anyone will be able to negative on Obama, because of the accusations of racism that would surely follow.
The dems usually speak with one voice and use their talking points (and their media buddies) effectively. It never has occurred to Republicans to do the same. They could not be ignored if they had the same consistant responses to crap like this.
Is it time for conservatives to get vicious, hell yes, but I fear they have become rogue elephants who prefer to go it alone.
Yes The Dems have used VITRIOL successfully for 3 years to activate their base.( Hate Bush, Pull Out the Troops, and so on)
Republicans have some catchin up, but the RINOs want us quiet? Why?
The RINOs know the grass roots activated by NASTY will not support the RINOs
It doesn't take a Rocket scientist to know what we must do: GET NASTY and give the dems and the RINOs as good as they have given conservatives. IN THIS WE MUST NOT FAIL!
IMO, we need to decide what is and what is not "conservatism" IMO the word has been co opted and the meaning of the term lost.
We need to ask oursleves what we believe in and what we will stand up for, otherwise we are just spinning our wheels.
I don't know that conservatives need to get more vicious, not stooping to the left's level and all that, but I get this writer's point loud and clear. Too often those on the other side get a free pass, where a conservative gets drawn and quartered for anything remotely considered offensive.
Bill Maher is an idiot.
I'm a neo-non-tolerant, so becoming vicious with the leftist pukes feels comfortable. Intolerance is preferrable to drowning in the sewer of secular embrace for degeneracy and scoietal engineering.
I guess W's "New Tone" is now officially dead - buried right next to "Religion of Peace" and "Jobs Americans Won't Do" :-)
If it is finally kaput, It's just too bad it has taken six years of nonstop, unanswered pummeling by the left before our side decided to fight back.
Conservatives need not become vicious or nasty. They need simply to become direct and unapologetic. I see Ann Coulter operating exactly in this way, plus she adds wit to directness. Her remarks about Edwards were a hoot, and if the Left can't take a joke, then that's just too bad.
Remember: unapologetic.
No vicious, but at least have the guts to stand up for truth and justice.
I was looking at the RNC website, in hopes of finding a rule that allows the removal of anyone from the Republican party and I did not see anything about it. I wanted them to pick one of the idiots that voted for that non binding resolution and toss him or her out. That wouldn't remove a person from office, but they would not have an (R) when trying to get elected.
I like my conservatism to have muscle and teeth as well as brains.
btt
You've just highlighted the problem. In your opinion we can't go negative on someone because it will be labeled racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. You remind me of prosecutors I worked with who were afraid to try and introduce evidence for fear the defense would object. Those prosecutors gelded themselves just as you are doing.
BTTT
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