Personal Attacks Cheapen Political Discourse

Think politics is all old, gray-haired white men arguing about social security and taxes? It's not! On Tuesday night, two women locked in a political argument and catfight on national television news that all of America has been talking about ever since.

In case you missed it, well-known conservative political writer Ann Coulter appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews on Tuesday, June 26th. Ann Coulter has previously been known for her controversial statements and personal attacks--she has made fun of Hillary Clinton's legs, called John Edwards a "faggot," and called Barack Obama a terrorist because his middle name is Hussein. Thus, it should not have been a surprise to most when her Tuesday TV appearances included her saying that she hoped senator and presidential contender John Edwards would be "killed in a terrorist assassination plot."

What was a surprise, however, was that after she made this remark, Senator Edwards' wife, Elizabeth Edwards, called into the Chris Matthews show Tuesday night and asked her, on the air, to stop the personal attacks on her husband, and the attack quickly deteriorated into a heated shouting match between the two women.

What bothers me about Ann Coulter is not necessarily her political affiliations but her tactics. Why are many young people politically apathetic? Perhaps because when they think politics, they see women and men just like this engaging in mud-slinging, hate speech, and personal attacks rather than actual intellectual debate. Some people will defend hate speech forever, but it seems to serve no point and accomplishes nothing.

Ann Coulter has long been a fan of vitriolic attacks like this because they garner tremendous press attention for her books. Inevitably, this event has become a source of publicity for both Ann Coulter and the Edwards campaign, which is trying to push some last-minute fundraising. But Ann Coulter's tactics do not help anyone; personally attacking someone because you don't like their politics is not an acceptable form of debate.

Somewhere in the blogosphere, I read a post about this incident and noticed that the first comment below the article said: "I wonder if Ann Coulter is representative of the best and the brightest Republican women out there?" To which I have to say: I sincerely hope not, because if she is, we have a problem, and a very troubling one.

Few women have made themselves very prominent in the political field, and even fewer women writers have done so. The fact that one of the most well known female political writers today is someone who is known best for transcending the lines of political and human decency with personal attacks and publicity stunts, does not bode well for American society.

Democrats have often pointed to the radical Coulter as a symbol of Republican party values, and even many Republicans are shocked by her statements and do not want to be associated with her. As Catherine Morgan at Informed Voter said: "I'm all for strong women, but she is really giving strong women everywhere a bad name." Plenty of great, strong, smart women are entering the political field everyday, but it's people like Ann Coulter who get all the media attention and give others a bad name. I don't want to see Ann Coulter viewed as representative of all Republicans, women, and writers--there are so many more who don't engage in her level of tactics.

People like Ann Coulter, when making such statements as the ones she made during her recent appearance on Hardball, pollute the field of intellectual debate. Politics is about discussion, debate, dialogue, open discourse--not about hate-mongering. Calling someone a "fag" because you don't like their ideology or their platform is not a legitimate form of argument, nor does it show any intelligence or reasoning skills--no matter what side of the political spectrum you lie on.

If people choose to attack each other rather than address the issues at hand, we cannot fix whatever may be wrong with the American political system, and this kind of behavior cannot be allowed to continue. What we need is civilized public discourse, not mindless hate speech.

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