You scratch my back....

Today, I was interested in an article entitled 'Edwards-Coulter spar' or something similar to that. I assumed that that this meant John Edwards, but soon found out that it was actually Elizabeth Edwards. From the number of articles on the subject, it appears as though this is a fairly large story right now.

For those who haven't heard, Coulter made a statement to the effect that whenever she referred to Edwards in the future, she would just say that she wished he had died in a terrorist assassination plot (because saying this is safer than referring to him as a faggot). This is in reference to a statement that Bill Maher made regarding Dick Cheney - if he were to die in a terrorist attack, fewer people would die, based on Cheney's influence in the current militant bent of US foreign policy.

Elizabeth Edwards called Hardball, where Coulter was making these statements, and implored her to stop the 'hate speech.' She compared Coulter's speech to racist language in the South.

The reason I find this especially irritating is this: political campaign contributions have increased to the Edwards campaign as a result, and Coulter's book sales have increased. Through this confrontation, both camps have gotten exactly what they wanted - more exposure to their base groups. One side can't exist without the other, really.

One of the things I always hated about listening to talk radio in high school on the way to jazz band with my dad - 570KVI for those in the Seattle area - was that we always had to listen to Kirby Wilbur, who had the 5-9am spot. To have enough to talk about each day, he would comb newspapers for controversial topics - paraphrase: "look! this Girl Scout troupe is selling thin mints at $2 higher than this other Girl Scout troupe! That's gouging! Call in and tell me how you feel about this awful situation" - that were usually extremely stupid and were brought up for the express purpose of drawing out idiot callers - paraphrase: "One time, a Girl Scout tried to rip me off, but I kicked her butt off my front porch. You can't let those little moneygrubbers get the one-up on you!" The caliber of caller was usually pretty low.

The purpose of these talk shows and tv shows are to appeal to the lowest common denominator in the American political system - the poorly educated, badly paid, easily persuaded American who is political for emotional reasons rather than logical or thoughtful reasons. These are the people who think it's funny that Coulter used a homosexual slur in reference to Edwards.

Normally, Democrats are about as culpable as Republicans in this sort of political sniping, but Ann Coulter really takes it up a notch. This, of course, helps her to appeal to those who may be interested in buying the tripe she calls her books. The most unfortunate part about all of this is that some people actually listen to what she has to say.