I Stand with Ann Coulter, and Here's Why.

Let me be clear. Ann Coulter is a loathsome panderer to the lowest forms of hatred and bias of the Right Wing. Her acid and venomous words feed into a culture of discriminatory hate that maligns the very bedrock of American Liberty. However, I am regularly disgusted with the shameless way in which so-called "liberal, progressive" Democrats RACE to the bottom of the barrel when it comes to repudiating Coulter. Let me further clarify: ANN COULTER IS NOT A MAN. Even if she was born male, she would not be a man, she would be a transsexual woman.

The repugnant hypocrisy of the Left -- supposed champions of women's and minorities' rights -- in this rampant transphobia is mind boggling. If one brings these hypocrites to task on the issue, one will be met with vehement refusal to admit that they are bigots. I recently called out fellow leftists in a facebook group for the use of this despicable tactic, and was told -- in over two thousand replies, no less -- that it is in fact perfectly acceptable to use sexist and anti-trans slurs against Ann, because she is mean. This implies that all principles we claim can go right out the window, when we find our opponent distasteful. Here's a little bias check for you: If the things you say about Ann Coulter would offend you said about the First Lady, they probably aren't okay for you to say. Further bias check: If you replace the word "tranny" with "n*gger" in your rant, would it be okay? If one slur is wrong, the other is too.

Attacking Ann's physicality is intellectually LAZY. For starters, attacking Ann -- or anyone -- based on their appearance illustrates your inability or refusal to deconstruct the substance of what she has said. It's an egregious ad hominem heuristic that allows those on the Left to avoid real discussion. Her appearance has no bearing on the things she says. Furthermore, her schtick is to incite the kind of angst in the Left that makes them abandon their so-called egalitarian principles and turn into the same snapping, backbiting, hateful shits that the Left accuses Ann of being. No, wait. They don't. They accuse her of being a tranny. This plays directly into her hand and is the PERFECT illustration of the exact kind of bullshit hypocrisy Ann says Democrats engage in. So, in the end, the one who is right in such situations IS ANN. In a stroke of sheer mental sloth, Democrats shoot themselves in the foot by making themselves just as slimy and base as Coulter herself. The difference is Ann KNOWS what she is doing.

Let's be even MORE clear. If you call Ann Coulter a man, or a tranny, or a he-she, or a shemale, or point out her adam's apple, and call yourself "progressive" and "pro-lgbt" or "inclusive", you are the most foul and loathsome kind of hypocrite. You are selecting words that people -- who are arguably among the most severely oppressed in this country and around the world -- hear, right before rabid bigots bring the shovels down on their skulls. You are selecting words that transpeople hear as justification for discriminatory jailing. You are selecting words that teenagers hear ringing through their heads as their life blood pours from their wrists. You are selecting words that medical "professionals" use to deny equal access to care. The net effect on Coulter of all this transmisogyny is exactly one metric bupkis. Ann LIVES to see foaming-at-the-mouth Democrats eat their own and betray the people they claim to champion. This bigoted tit-for-tat only proves her point that Democrats, feminists, and the gay rights lobby are hypocrites just aching for a chance to attack and disparage a deeply at-risk minority community. Ann stands as the "manly" face of that hypocrisy. You are not only missing the mark of harming Ann, you are in fact doing nothing but causing collateral damage to gender minorities in that you contribute to institutional and cultural transmisogyny. Beyond that, you contribute to the larger problem of social sexism that makes it okay to criticize a woman's appearance in the first place, in lieu of confronting her thoughts or points. This begs the question: Why so anti-woman and anti-trans, Democrats and lefties? Aren't these the exact same things you have a problem being directed against Mrs. Obama?

So, although the words fairly curdle in my mouth, I will stand up and cry to the heavens that I stand with Ann when it comes to the bigotry of the Left. 

Lady Liberty sure is eating a lot of Cal-tein bars...

 Our current political and social system seems increasingly moody, to me. There are wild swings of SCOTUS between decisions like the recent Prop 8 and DOMA decisions to things like Citizens United. Congress is swinging from left to right control practically with every election cycle. The presidency is caught between class warfare and ideological warfare. There is a fast-growing disparity between the upper ends of our economy and the lower, and we seem to just be hopping from one bursting bubble to another with dotcoms, real estate, etc. It is as if there is no room for moderation in Washington, anymore. We don't seem to even know who we are from one administration to the next. It is as if America just hit political puberty.

The further we go into this realm of extremes, the more convoluted politics and political action becomes. With super PACs and corporations, and now even individuals allowed to feed unlimited amounts of capital into parties, one wonders how much equality the system still supports. More and more, our elections are won only in name by votes, when in reality the choices of candidates are made by a smaller and smaller pool of connected, wealthy interests and their various lobbies in Washington. Left or right, American federal politics is more and more a game of board room chairs, if not of thrones. In a country built on money talking and other things walking, is it any surprise that the rapidly impoverishing middle and lower classes also see a diminished capacity for their own voices to reach the ears of power? It's like the promises the POTUS makes are no more than the promises a class presidential candidate made at Anytown High. 

It is not, however, that Americans have no complicity in this system of extremes. Our memories have grown increasingly short, and our reactions to crises, political or otherwise, seem magnified, in all respects. Our political culture is riddle with affairs, and sexting scandals, and gossiping frenemies (I mean, why IS Nancy Pelosi's hair so big?). Our representatives seem to be cycling rapidly between political polarities, but do we not elect them? Do they not, by nature of our system, represent us?  Do we not choose our Queen Bees and Wannabes? Though the laws in congress lately seem to swing wildly from controversy to scandal and back, is it any wonder, considering the wild swings of public opinion in the last two decades? Twenty years ago, who could've imagined that a federal judge in Texas would be striking down the state ban on same-sex marriage? Poor sincere Cady--err--Barack, just a scrappy kid from Africa, with no idea how to play the game. Who could've imagined he'd become such hard, shiny, drone-bombing plastic?

America, it seems, has reached a strange political adolescence. Checks between the branches of government are used often and decisively like notes in home room. The Supreme Court regularly lays down bitterly divided decisions like a prom committee on too many stimulants. The first black president was elected as a liberal reformer after a primary campaign of Mean Girls level backbiting (Hillary Clinton: fugly slut? Pusher? Dyke?). Despite cheerleadery claims of hope and change, Obama has in many ways presided over a slide to the right in policies and decisions that nobody could've expected. Finally, for its part Congress sometimes becomes so overwhelmed at the enormity of everything that it, like, literally can't even right now, and has to shut down the government for a couple of months and go up to its room and cry. 

Hillary somehow did look like a rock star, though, at the dance (even after that Bengahzi bus Boehner allegedly shoved her in front of).

And Barney Frank? Yes. Almost too much to function.