Tom Walker wrote:
>
> In other words, to
> criticize Coulter, our discourse must be so elevated that it is
> inaccessible to a popular audience. Coulter can be a political whore but
> we must not use the word "whore". Well, fuck that.
Your argument as a whole is correct, but your tactical/rhetorical suggestions are, I think, a non sequitur. As Kelley pointed out, no one on this list has any respect for Coulter's politics, hence in this context nothing is gained by anything one might say about her. And no one who _does_ have any respect for her politics is going to give a fuck what some lefties say about her knees. For all the fuss made (not just on this list but in the public press) a few years ago about Bennett's (sp?) hypocrisy after his gambling habit was revealed I doubt a single person out of the 300,000 residents of the u.s. changed his/her political or religious or moral opinions. I doubt even that a single leftist had his/her left position strengthened by all that jabber. But that at least was entertaining, as was the exposure of the sexual pecadilloes of a tv-preacher whose name I forget.
Celebrity idols may boost the morale of rightists, and will do so whether we badmouth them or not, but I doubt they have any appreciable effect in _changing_ views. And even when they are on our side, the right seems to make better use of them than we can. See the recent article in LRB on the (Anti)Fonda Cult.
Carrol