Ann Coulter just isn’t trying anymore, which probably explains why many conservative pundits — even Michelle “What was so bad about Japanese internment camps?” Malkin — have distanced themselves from her. There’s a very revealing clip at Media Matters of a recent interview on CNBC’s The Big Idea that’s worth checking out.
Here she is on mixed-race couples, a subject on which I happen to be an expert:
COULTER: No, it’s true. I give all of these speeches at megachurches across America, and the one thing that’s really striking about it is how utterly, completely diverse they are, and completely unself-consciously. You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it’s like they have a chip on their shoulder. They’re just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would. And —
[DONNY, host of The Big Idea] DEUTSCH: I don’t agree with that. I don’t agree with that at all. Maybe you have the chip looking at them. I see a lot of interracial couples, and I don’t see any more or less chips there either way. That’s erroneous.
COULTER: No. In fact, there was an entire Seinfeld episode about Elaine and her boyfriend dating because they wanted to be a mixed-race couple, so you’re lying.
A Seinfeld plot point as the basis for a sociological argument. Interesting…
Here she is on Jews, who she says really should upgrade to Christianity. Earlier in the interview, she talked about her dream world, which she described as “New York City during the Republican National Convention…
COULTER: Well, OK, take the Republican National Convention. People were happy. They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America, they —
DEUTSCH: Christian — so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?
COULTER: Yes.
DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?
COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?
DEUTSCH: So I should not be a Jew, I should be a Christian, and this would be a better place?
COULTER: Well, you could be a practicing Jew, but you’re not.
It gets “better”…
DEUTSCH: That isn’t what I said, but you said I should not — we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or —
COULTER: Yeah.
DEUTSCH: Really?
COULTER: Well, it’s a lot easier. It’s kind of a fast track.
DEUTSCH: Really?
COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.
DEUTSCH: You can’t possibly believe that.
COULTER: Yes.
DEUTSCH: You can’t possibly — you’re too educated, you can’t — you’re like my friend in —
COULTER: Do you know what Christianity is? We believe your religion, but you have to obey.
DEUTSCH: No, no, no, but I mean —
COULTER: We have the fast-track program.
DEUTSCH: Why don’t I put you with the head of Iran? I mean, come on. You can’t believe that.
COULTER: The head of Iran is not a Christian.
DEUTSCH: No, but in fact, “Let’s wipe Israel” —
COULTER: I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention.
DEUTSCH: “Let’s wipe Israel off the earth.” I mean, what, no Jews?
COULTER: No, we think — we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.
DEUTSCH: Wow, you didn’t really say that, did you?
COULTER: Yes. That is what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws. We know we’re all sinners —
DEUTSCH: In my old days, I would have argued — when you say something absurd like that, there’s no —
COULTER: What’s absurd?
DEUTSCH: Jews are going to be perfected. I’m going to go off and try to perfect myself —
COULTER: Well, that’s what the New Testament says.
They cut to a commerical, and then Deutsch gave her an opportunity to clarify her remarks. After all, sometimes in the heat of debate, one can put things the wrong way…
DEUTSCH: Welcome back to The Big Idea. During the break, Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment. So I’m going to give her a chance. So you don’t think that was offensive?
COULTER: No. I’m sorry. It is not intended to be. I don’t think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to, you know, live up to all the laws. What Christians believe — this is just a statement of what the New Testament is — is that that’s why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don’t believe our testament.
DEUTSCH: You said — your exact words were, “Jews need to be perfected.” Those are the words out of your mouth.
COULTER: No, I’m saying that’s what a Christian is.
DEUTSCH: But that’s what you said — don’t you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic —
COULTER: No!
DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You’re an educated woman. How do you not see that?
COULTER: That isn’t hateful at all.
DEUTSCH: But that’s even a scarier thought. OK —
COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don’t want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean, [Rev. Jerry] Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is “Christ died for our sins.” We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all.
7 replies on “Not Even Trying to Pass as “Sane” Anymore”
And in other news, the Pope’s still Catholic.
Coulter’s a lame buffoon, but her views on the Old Testament vs. New Testament are not drastically out of step with most Catholic and Protestant doctrine.
Any time you get evangelistic religions with exclusive truth-claims (hello Christianity and Islam), they are going to want EVERYBODY to convert to their faith. What would be the point in being a Christian or a Muslim if you DIDN’T believe that your way was the sole, exclusive way to attain personal redemption and live a fuller life?
For that matter all religions have pretty exclusive truth-claims and think their way is the only way. Some are evangelical and insist on the faithful going out to reach the unconverted, and some are not. But very few of them believe that everybody else from all other faiths also get a free pass into Heaven.
There’s a big difference between believing your faith’s particular truth-claims and being a raving, drooling anti-Semite. I can understand how that’s a hard distinction to make in Coulter’s case because there’s always raving going on.
As an ex-Christian, what cracks me up about this is how ignorant it actually is about Christianity. She keeps saying, “you have to obey the laws”, but the New Testament is full of things that say that Jesus fulfilled the law so we don’t have to, that the only law that matters is to love God and love your neighbor, etc. Coulter has it exactly opposite.
I find it interesting that she uses the argument that Christianity is the “perfection” of the Jewish faith. The same argument is made by the faith of Islam.
The Jews have the old Testament, this is their law. The Christians have the New Testament and the Old Testament, combined, this is their law. Islam has the old testament, the new testament and the Koran as their law.
Interestingly enough, they believe and revere the prophets of the old testament and the prophet of the new testament (Jesus) in addition to Muhammad, who is considered to be the final prophet.
Using Ann’s argument, all Jews and Christians should immediately convert to Islam and become “perfected”.
Its all crap in the end, each believes in their divine right to guide the faithful to their concept of eternal life. All are wrong, and all are right. Each person must decide what fits them. I just wish that they wouldn’t be so pushy about each of their faith’s.
And following Ray’s logic, if we really wanted to upgrade to the latest version, we’d all go Latter-Day Saints (better known as “The Mormons”). Which would mean that I’d have to wear their wacky underwear instead of my wacky underwear.
(I’ve got boxers with bears, sock monkeys, sharks, sea horses and so on. My theory is that a man who is afraid of a little flashy underwear is afraid of life.)
I’m from the Babylon 5 school of thought. Here’s a snippet from the episode Believers:
Actually, Baha’i is the next step up after Islam. Mormon ignores Islam, and is an upgrade to Christianity. There’s got to be some sort of software analogy here.
Judaism is 1.0, Christianity 2.0, Islam 3.0, Baha’i 4.0, and Mormonism is something like 2.9 (with various other denominations coming as 2.1, 2.2, 2.2.1.9, etc.)
Or if we say that Judaism is DOS, and Christianity is Windows, then Islam is Vista (lots of restrictions), and Mormonism is WinCE. Or possibly Bob.
I always thought talking about her in any sense only gives her what she wants, attention. Just ignore her and eventually she’ll go away or she’ll go find someone else willing to give her attention, either way we win.
Batshit insane.