Ann Coulter's skewed view of patriotism

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

From Capitol Hill Blue

Opinion
Ann Coulter's skewed view of patriotism
By CLIFF SCHECTER
Aug 26, 2003, 04:22

Though I have not found the time in to sit down and read Treason, the most 
recent book by best-selling author Ann Coulter, it is obvious from the 
vitriol she has spat out during her many appearances to plug the book that 
she needs to be educated on the meaning of the word patriotism.

Coulter makes a nuanced claim that liberals since the dawn of television 
have all been traitors and, if not for conservatives, we'd probably all be 
speaking Russian. Yet she offers little in the way of support for her claim.

As only she could, Coulter -- while pegging virtually every Democrat who 
came into contact with Alger Hiss as treasonous, and "wrong" on any U.S. 
foreign action since -- tries to rehabilitate the image of one of the truly 
disgusting demagogues of American history, U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of 
Wisconsin.

I find it difficult to figure out what characteristics one must possess, 
other than being Republican, to be a patriot in her book. My definition of 
the word includes anyone who has sacrificed, served, bled for or fought for 
the rights of all Americans as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Why not begin with a Democratic president she smears by association, Harry 
Truman, who suffered through one of the most difficult decisions any 
president has had to bear: whether or not to use a new and unbelievably 
destructive weapon to disintegrate hundreds of thousands of the enemy in 
order to save American lives.

Truman made the right decision, and because of it, my fiancee's grandfather 
-- who was about to be shipped from the European Theater to the Pacific to 
storm a multitude of well-protected islands -- and many others like him 
were saved.

The buck didn't just stop there. Truman's Marshall Plan was instrumental in 
rebuilding Europe into the strong, democratic presence we see today. He 
created NATO, likely preventing another European or even world war.

John F. Kennedy came home from the Pacific a hero. After his boat, PT 109, 
was split in two by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy swam to safety through 
shark-infested waters, bringing his surviving crewmen with him. Kennedy 
stood down Castro and, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kruschev. He 
brought national service as a concept into the mainstream of American 
politics and was ultimately martyred. Not quite my definition of a traitor.

Unlike former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., or Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., 
and other leading Democrats who were put in harm's way during war time, 
there is a long list of Republicans, militarists and patriots all, who 
managed to avoid military service in time of war.

According to Coulter's definition, Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandal 
were patriotic acts. And it was, as she has it, equally patriotic for 
McCarthy to hold up that list of 95 Communists in Wheeling, W. Va., when 
all he really had in his hands was a blank sheet of paper. On the other 
hand my grandfather, still a New Deal Democrat at age 97, who made sure the 
lights were off inside every house on his street to protect his neighbors 
in Queens from a possible German aerial attack during World War II, was, as 
she has it, a traitor. So too was my great-grandmother, among the first to 
fight for women's suffrage. All because of partisan affiliation. It is a 
bizarre calculation.

Ann Coulter might want to take a look in the mirror. If it were not for my 
great-grandmother and others like her she would not have the right to go on 
television in her slinky outfits.

(Cliff Schecter, a proud Democrat, is a political consultant who can be 
seen regularly on the Fox News Channel)

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