My Amazon review of Ann Coulter's new book Mugged:Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama
Yeah, it was hell reading the book but as i point out in the review, it was a quick read because the book is a reclycling of themes from previous books (didn't Jonah Lehrer get in trouble for the same thing?). The review is in the one-star reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Mugged-Racial-Demagoguery-Seventies-Obama/product-reviews/1595230998/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0
The review was posted for 15 seconds and then got a negative thumbs-down--that's some quick review-reading! Give it positive feedback if you like the review and neagtive feedback if you don't:
This Book is Further Proof that Coulter is the Poor Man's Ayn Rand
Yeah, I read the book. It was quick read because Mugged is a tired rehash of themes from Coulter's previous books, specifically the parts that referenced racial issues. However, this time Coulter wisely forgoes the attempt to sanitize the white supremacist group The Council of Conservative Citizens (C of CC) as she had done in her previous book Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America. This omission also serves to make her readers more likely to forget the recent controversy surrounding former RNC chairman Haley Barbour whose presidential ambitions were derailed after he defended the precursor to the C of CC, the White Citizens' Councils (Barbour also has an extensive history of palling around with the C of CC).
On the subject of Barbour, he was also the subject of well-deserved scorn when he made the laughable claim that the reason he and other Southern Democrats switched to the Republican Party was because they were in favor of integration. In Mugged, Coulter attempts to justify the transparent historical revisionism of Barbour and other Neanderthals. Coulter's book is not just bad history; it is a calculated effort to rewrite history.
Take for instance Coulter's whitewashing of Ronald Reagan's numerous appeals to racists. In a calculated manner, Coulter omits relevant information regarding Reagan's appeal to Southern racists in his infamous 1980 speech at the Neshoba County Fair in which he told audiences that he supported states' rights. Coulter fails to mention that Reagan gave the speech at the urging of a Mississippi RNC member, who told Reagan that the speech would have the effect of appealing to Southern whites who had supported the George Wallace's race baiting. Coulter also omits the freak show atmosphere of the speech; Reagan shared the stage not only with segregationist John Bell Williams but with a young Trent Lott who had praised Strom Thurmond's 1948 Dixiecrat presidential campaign.
Furthermore, Coulter absurdly states, "Reagan was a straightforward Californian without an ounce of [S]outhern populism." This is either very bad history or an attempt to whitewash Reagan's numerous appeals to Southern racism (I believe it is the latter). For instance, Reagan regaled Southern audiences with his made-up tales of the "strapping young buck" who used his food stamps to buy T-bone steaks (anyone who thinks this isn't racial should check the Urban Dictionary's definition of "buck"
. Also, while Reagan was the ostensible head of the Party of Lincoln, he spoke of the treasonous Jefferson Davis as one of his heroes and referred to the Voting Right Act of 1965 as "humiliating to the South" (the website "Ronald Reagan: Racism and Racial Politics" has a comprehensive look at Reagan's woeful record on race).
This is a foul book not only because it is an attempt to whitewash the sins of her political allies, the corrupt and demented Southern aristocracy that benefited from slavery and later Jim Crow, but because it sends a toxic message to Southern whites. Coulter absurdly defends the Confederate battle flag, giving her imprimatur on its use and display; this is a toxic message to working class whites, the display of the Stars and Bars is a surefire way for a person to self-marginalize. Coulter is the poor man's Ayn Rand: while Rand's repulsive ideology told the well-heeled that their selfishness is a virtue; Coulter, on the other hand, panders to the worst instincts of the white working class. In that way, Coulter is a microcosm of the contemporary political right: profit handsomely by pitting poor whites against poor blacks--to keep them both powerless.
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