Riefenstahl vs. Coulter
Avedon Carol offers this lovely essayette (The Sideshow, 18 July 2007) comparing Leni Riefenstahl with a the Odious Coulter:
It occurs to me that someday, when Ann Coulter's oeuvre becomes part of the collection of works that are taught in college, along with the works of Leni Riefenstahl, as examples of using the media to promote fascism, that Coulter, if she survives the way Riefenstahl did, will be interviewed as an old woman trying to explain that she didn't really mean any of that stuff and that it never occurred to her that anyone would take it seriously and it wasn't really her fault that it all turned to crap because of people like her. And she'll even claim she felt she had no choice, no other option if she was to survive. "After all, the polls said 90% of the people supported him!" Just like Riefenstahl did. [pause] Or maybe not.
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on Saturday, 21 July 2007 at 16.31
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That's an interesting comparison, all right. The old-age attempt to escape blame and deny intentions seems entirely plausible.
However, from what I've read about her, Riefenstahl was a true believer in Hitler, his so-called national socialism and new world order. She was a talented and highly pro-active Nazi enthusiast.
Coulter strikes me as more of a huckster harpy who found a niche thanks to a strong feature of neoconservative Republican politics: perversity. I've long held that a big reason those in Bush's base remains loyal, and a big reason why the broader field of Republicans backed him for so long, is that these people get great enjoyment from aggravating and inflicting pain on Democrats, especially liberal Democrats.
In other words, Bush has been a sharp stick in the eye of people his ardent backers not only disagree with about public policy, but ones his backers take special joy in baiting and causing pain.
That's sick — and so is Coulter.