McCarthy, Nixon, Bush & Modern Conservatism

There is a fascinating article in the Los Angeles Times about the origins of modern American conservatism, IE, post-World War II conservatism. The article points out that the father of modern conservatism isn't Barry Goldwater, but Joe McCarthy. He was the politician who figured out that what Republicans needed to do was to demonize certain Americans to convince other Americans to vote for them.

Joe McCarthy went after Democrats by saying that they were soft on communism and tolerated communists in the government. He picked up support from working-class Catholics, rural whites, and Southerners. Nixon was able to follow the same strategy by demonizing college students, African-Americans, and anti-war protesters. Bush followed the same strategy in accusing John Kerry of not supporting American troops and implied that anyone who disagreed with him in how he was conducting the Iraq War was Un-American.

McCain tried the same approach against Obama, but the bad economic news meant that people were more worried about their jobs than their neighbors' patriotism. Don't worry, though, as the author of the Times article puts it, Republicans won't give this tactic up because it is in their DNA.

Did Ann Coulter Finally Go Too Far?

The L.A. Times has an article by one of its writers about Ann Coulter's remarks on a CNBC show about in her perfect nation everyone would be Christian. Needless to say the host, who is Jewish, was deeply offended by her remarks. He pointed out that her position that Christians are "perfected" Jews is, in reality, a form of anti-Semitism. Coulter, true to form, denied that her remarks showed her to be anti-Semitic.

What's remarkable isn't that Coulter made a bigoted remark. She's been doing that for years. What's remarkable is that her host was actually surprised that she made the remark. Now either he has really bad research assistants who didn't tell him about Coulter, or he actually thought she would have the good taste not to make a bigoted remark on his show. He was, of course, wrong.

Coulter has made vicious remarks about gays and Muslims. She has spread her hate on every forum she has been given. It will be interesting to see if this time network executives decide that she has gone too far and stop giving her venues to spread her bile.

For it is the people who decide to book her on television and radio shows who are just as much to blame for what Coulter says as herself. There is too much evidence for network executives to claim that they don't know what she is or what she stands for. She is a hater and she spreads hate. If network executives decide that they care more for attracting her audience than they do for decency, then they deserve what they get.