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well, at least coulter's political functions are now obvious, in addition to her idiocy...she operated as a transmission belt, part of the ideological system that enabled evangelical protestants and other forms of contemporary conservatism to imagine that they had things in common. she was a translation machine, cross-voicing political elements important to the evangelicals as aspects of a wider conservative worldview.
if this holds, then maybe a way to look at this otherwise tiresome exercise in rightwing bottomfeeder politics is to see coulter today as a symptom: once the political coalition that enabled her to appear functional (common sense to some, i fear) came unravelled, she wanders, clueless and flatfooted, back to the political motherland and straight into one of the oldest internal fights in the judeo-christian tradition, this tedious scrap over who gets to understand themselves as "chosen"...
that she is a bigot is clear. that this bigotry is not particular to ann coulter, but reflective of a bigger political problem in the states, a condition of possiblity for the bush regime, for the "war on terror" and so forth is a far bigger problem.
that she has nothing to say about islam that is worth anything at all is no surprise--if i understand her function correctly, she is neither of or speaking to a group that knows shit about islam, and it seems to me that were she to know something about it, it'd just gum up communication between her and such demographic as she still might have.
she also reproduces pretty accurate identity politics american conservative-style---her "descriptions" of the world are totally unhinged from actually existing material reality, but they do make sense if the goal is not to describe the world but rather to reinforce a sense of detached spectatorship with respect to the world, one which processes political action in more or less messianic terms, one which disapproves of everything that is not exactly like oneself. so she speaks to conservative narcissism, the kind of belief that would lead you to believe that the Real Problem Out There is that not everyone thinks as you do, not everyone understands that it is gods will to be totally passive in areas directly related to economics, passive with reference to infrastructure questions, unable to think in structural or even in coherently historical terms...what matters is that you are one of Us.
(you're one of us. kinda like the film "freaks" that way, aint it?)
and that identity is most active when it has a clear Enemy or Other against which to articulate itself.
and that a proper evangelical protestant identity understands itself as engaged in spiritual warfare with the forces of Evil--which includes everyone and everything not identical to evangelical protestants themselves, everyone and everything that is not slotted into their incoherent views of a properly functioning theocratic world.
the wonder is not that she isnt taken seriously now---the wonder is that she ever was taken seriously by anyone, anywhere, ever.
but i guess a cultural reputation can be purchased, if you serve interests directly or indirectly with deep enough pockets to front the requisite monies that are required to get your face and tedious message out there.
major cultural markets are all pay-to-play affairs.
repetition legitimates anything or anyone, even ann fucking coulter.
for a while at least.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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