Let Ann Coulter Speak
People Are Smart Enough to Reject Author's Views on Their Own
Since whenever Coulter is out promoting her latest work a controversy is soon to follow, it did not take long for one to develop. Apparently NBC canceled her scheduled appearance on The Today Show. This did not make Coulter happy and she claims that the network has banned her from all their shows, MSNBC programs included.
Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog group, criticized NBC for booking Coulter in the first place. “NBC has repeatedly provided Ann Coulter a platform to spew her inflammatory rhetoric even as NBC-affiliated hosts and anchors have expressed disapproval of her statements or criticized the media for promoting her,” reads a story on their site.
Attempts to stifle Coulter and her views are a mistake and not something liberals should champion. Let people hear what this woman supposedly believes. Once they do, all but a devoted minority will reject what she is saying. Based on the recent presidential election and the changing demographics in this country, this devoted minority is hardly something to fear.
Younger generations refuse to accept the vile Coulter is peddling, as evidenced by their votes for Barack Obama and their general political views.
According to data provided by the Pew Research Center, 66% of those under age 30 voted for Obama. That is the largest disparity between young voters and other age groups since the birth of exit polling in 1972.
The PRC data goes on to say that among voters ages 18-29, 45% identify themselves as Democrat while 26% state they are Republican. As recently as 2000 the split was almost exactly even between party affiliation.
What does this all mean? As Pew puts it, “Young voters are more diverse racially and ethnically than older voters and more secular in their religious orientation. These characteristics, as well as the climate in which they have come of age politically, incline them not only toward Democratic Party affiliation but also toward greater support of activist government, greater opposition to the war in Iraq, less social conservatism, and a greater willingness to describe themselves as liberal politically.”
Coulter represents a political ideology that is dying. The more we hear from her, the more she contributes to the death of that ideology. So please, let her speak. Hers are the views of someone scared and desperate, completely aware of their diminishing political significance.
Though she will continue to sell a few books and show up on TV, Coulter's inflammatory rhetoric, puerile name-calling, seething hatred and forced attempts at divisiveness are on the way out. Right now it is not what the people want.
Sources:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1031/young-voters-in-the-2008-election
http://mediamatters.org/items/200901040001
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