Ann Coulter speaks, and the media shrug
Conservative columnist and gadfly Ann Coulter overstepped even her gross boundaries of impropriety in her conversation with Donny Deutsch on his CNBC program The Big Idea when she asserted that Christians were “perfected Jews.“ While this belief is not uncommon among some Christian theologians, it is not the type of commentary that today is bandied about before unsophisticated national television audiences, given how often “supersessionist theology“ is historically seen as justifying anti-Semitic attitudes.
Coulter's further suggestion that America would be better if it were a Christian country ought to have enraged the media, politicians, civil libertarians, and Jewish institutional leadership — as well as all Jews. Instead she was dismissed as “kooky as ever,“ a minor player for whom criticism was only additional publicity.
Beyond the substance of her insults was the absence of virtually any indignation and outrage from a number of key sources. There was nary a leader in the Republican Party who took sufficient umbrage at her attacks to publicly disassociate him/herself from Coulter.
Republicans are having a difficult time during this election cycle maintaining their ranks, and are not interested in alienating their base. There are too many conservative Republican voters who ally themselves with Coulter on other issues for Republican leaders to attack her on inflammatory anti-Semitic remarks. Even the Republican Jewish Coalition, which held a most impressive gathering in Washington that drew most of the leading Republican presidential aspirants, could not bring itself to condemn Coulter's attacks on Jews and Judaism.
With the exception of a few Jewish members of Congress, including Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), there was virtually no outrage from Democratic leaders either. Leaving aside the partisan implications of a Democratic onslaught on Coulter, Democratic leaders and presidential candidates were unmoved to respond. As with the Republicans, political considerations trumped ethical demands.
Ann Coulter has developed a sizable following among fundamentalist Christians. Many of her positions on social issues and most domestic issues resonate within the evangelical community. The deafening quiet, however, within the mainline churches or those groups that are actively involved in ecumenical outreach to the Jewish community was telling.
Was it too much to expect them to chastise a believing Christian who — at a minimum — offended Jews? Clearly, their commitment to the Constitution's protection of religious freedom took second place to their own discomfort over a time-honored, if recently muted, tenet of much Christian theology.
Jewish groups issued dutiful statements of protest. They were slow in coming and were generally one-shot blasts. Beyond the National Jewish Democratic Council's petition asking networks to stop booking Coulter, there were few demands for action or calls for organized protest. Within the Jewish community, especially among right-wing and Orthodox leaders, there was a tendency either to laugh off her remarks or treat them as a believer's mere statement of faith. Some right-wing Jewish spokespersons, columnists, and bloggers actually attacked her attackers, rather than address the substance of her remarks.
Coulter's remarks led to a flurry of Internet traffic, and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named her “Worst Person in the World“ for her subsequent remarks on The Michael Medved Show, saying “the Jews believe that my savior, a Jew, was a raving lunatic, and you don't see me sniffling and crying.“ But missing was the kind of public, media, and political groundswell that occurred this spring when Don Imus spewed forth his racist shock attacks on Rutgers University's women's basketball players. The reaction drove Imus off the air. Let Coulter sell her books and speak before invited audiences, but continuing to give her access to free media is no more acceptable than was Imus.
The failure to confront Ann Coulter adds fuel to the suspicion that tolerating anti-Semitism may be as fashionable in the United States as it is already in many parts of Europe. History teaches that belligerent vocal attacks on Jews should never escape without satisfactory resolution. Jews ignore this tragic lesson at their peril.
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