Ann Coulter and Her Premises...

Ann Coulter lives with several premises.

Her first premise is that all people who are either self-professed liberals or seen, by her, as liberal, are bad.

Her second premise is that if she states something is a fact, it is a fact, despite what any other research indicates.

Her third premise is that civil discourse is foolishness. Her books and speeches are not restrained by any sense of civility on her part.

Her first premise is more sad than anything else. If people believe that goodness or badness are based on ideologies those people are folks who ought to be pitied. The quality or lack of quality of individuals is based on so many factors. If one actually followed the Bible’s qualities of goodness as opposed to what people like to think they are, those qualities generally revolve around kindness, charity, compassion, and generosity. A great Rabbi once indicated that the dual commandment of loving God and loving people is the core of the Bible; the rest is commentary. What he says would apply to the New Testament as well as the Old Testament.

One thing I have learned in a quarter century of being a minister is that virtues such as kindness, charity, compassion, and generosity are qualities that rarely have an ideological tag to them. They are virtues shared by people of all creeds of all political beliefs.

Her second premise is something I see more and more of. We seem to have come to the conclusion that if a person states something as a fact, and sticks with the statement, and repeats it over and over again, it suddenly becomes a fact. Additionally, people often see a well argued hypothesis as a fact. If one can make a statement, give examples, give anecdotal examples, then it is a fact.

It doesn’t quite work that way. Facts are, by their very nature, indisputable. Interestingly enough, there actually are a lot fewer facts than people often realize. If one studies ethics, a part of philosophy, it is based on premises, thoughts, and opinions, but it really isn’t based on facts. This is why there are so many debates as to right and wrong, good and bad.

The difficult so many people have is that they have a difficult time embracing that the world we live in is a complicated place. Things do not fall as we’d like them to fall and world events are often difficult to totally understand. The recent conflict between Israel and the Gaza strip is a great example. The reasons of being for both Jews and Palestinians are quite compelling and extensive.

Coulter makes numerous statements in her latest book that have been proven to be wrong. She either did poor research, came to bad results, or is just dishonest. When challenged on her bogus statements shed simply says that she is right and her critics are wrong. That’s a nice world to live in. It resembles Oz more than reality, but, oh well.

Her last premise is a core problem we have. Civility is a lost virtue. The ability to sit, to respect others, and to listen to others and offer reasonable responses seems to have been lost. Ann Coulter is not the only one. Rush Limbaugh sees no virtue in civility. Bill Maher sees no virtue in civility. Michael Moore doesn’t either and neither does Karl Rove. Al Franken might become a Senator from Minnesota and one of his best selling books was “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.” It is not a book title that indicates a generosity of spirit.

This lack of civility comes at a great price. The intense mean spiritedness that we are experiencing has crushed the ability for people to actually solve problems. One of the problems our government has is that people are not looking for solutions, but looking to find ways to make their opponents look bad. People look across the aisle and see enemies, and not fellow Americans.

People often say that America is suffering from moral erosion. Like anything else, the first example of moral erosion is always around sex. People generally are more tolerant of rampant greed or rampant violence than they are of rampant sex. I am not saying that any of these rampants are good, just using this as an example. To me, the greatest form of moral erosion is a lack of civility, a complete lack of kindness to others. The concept of ‘loving one’s neighbor,’ is no longer important. Sad.

The saddest things of all are these. Ann Coulter will be invited to make numerous appearances to pass on what she loves to pass on, and many people will buy her books. And sadly, they will believe her.