Customer Reviews

Soulless: Ann Coulter and the Right-Wing Church of Hate

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

In the wide world of politics, everyone has their favorites - even multiple favorites. I find Susan Estrich to be a most interesting writer whether it is about politics or not, so I looked forward to reading "Soulless." As a kind of help-book for Ann Coulter, I didn't find it to be that appealing, but the points raised about Ms. Coulter's attack style and the questions raised about her literary and conversational skills were provoking. As Ms. Estrich points out quite well, Ms. Coulter's comments/controversies/insults/appraisals often turn into quotes "all about me": how they can further the career of Ms. Coulter by having people talk about the outrageousness of Ms. Coulter. And, if they can take a swipe at her political enemies, so much the better. The real driving point of the book for me, though, beyond the self-promotional abilities of Ms. Coulter, is the question of what kind of culture are we promoting on our news and entertainment shows by having someone of Ms. Coulter's ilk appear on the media when it is known that insults, fabrications and demeaning characterizations will be the order of the day? Why, when we know what to expect, do we opt to go for the lowest common denominator for our news and entertainment? (It's spelled m-o-n-e-y.) Susan Estrich has written a thought-provoking book, as she does with her newspaper columns, and the above points (and many others) have helped to make this a book worth investigating.

As a person who has come to hate the "personal attack" genre of political books starting to fill the shelves, I approached this with extreme caution. Was Estrich going to simply bash Ann, or would she have the willingness and fortitude to dissect the Coulter message? Fortunately for me and my sanity, there was no personal attack of Ann in the book. Instead it is a well reasoned counter to much of what Coulter wrote in "Godless".

Susan Estrich crawls around inside Coulter's head (yeah...I know, pretty creepy) and examines what she truly believes versus what she says strictly for the publicity. She also examines Ann's arguments and points out ways to overcome her shrill tactics.

I couldn't quite understand why the hard right came out so abusively about this book in the reviews until I read the book. This is absolutely the best debunking of Coulter I have ever read, and the hard right is scared people will actually read this book and learn how to counter Coulter. This is a very well written book with an important message for people of all political parties that don't like the use of smear tactics.

Estrich has finally dared to take on whom Al Franken once called the "reigning diva of the hysterical right", and really nails it, exposing her innacuracies, hypocrisy, and general hatefulness...notice how the 1-star reviews on this page do little more than attack the author's physical appearance, deride her for making the title a parody of Coulter's latest attack piece (um, didn't you neo-cons do the same 10 years ago w/"Al Franken is a Buck-Toothed Moron"?), and regurgitate conservative talking points (the book's an attack on GOPers, Christianity, etc.)..if you actually READ the book, you'd see it's actually a debunking of someone who's distorting these values you supposedly hold dear and making your party look bad by assocation. And if you do read the book, I'm sure you'll find it to be a real eye-opener.

This is a very good book. Susan Estrich does a great job of defining who Ann Coulter is and the tactics she uses to get attention and sell books. She destroys Ann's argument about Willie Horton (which is the subject Ann opens with in Godless) she also takes on Ann's favorite subjects: gays, abortion, death penalty, and others. One great point that Susan Esrtich makes is the Ann Coulter's book Slander is about how liberals use slander to demonize conservative, which is so hypocritical because Ann has no original arguments and only uses slander to demonize liberals so she can sell books.
Most of the negative comments I am sure are from people how have not read the book. That's why their review is only a attack on the writer with no point to make about the books content. These review are for people who have read the book, but it seems the majority would rather use it to fight with conservative and liberals.

Ann and her ilk have transformed politics into something that the Founding Fathers would cringe at. While I am a liberal (and proud of it), I do not want to hate on conservatives. I do not think they are stupid or losers or people who desparately need therapy. But I hear conservatives every day tell me that I hate the US and that I am evil. That is wrong and it is because of Ann an her buddies that the two sides do not keep each other honest.

For years I've told friends that the main reason for Ann Coulter's existence is because she's so extreme that she makes extreme right-wingers such as George W, Bush and Dick Cheney look like moderates.

Susan Estrich makes that same point as she does it much more articulately than I ever did. Here's a sample from page 40 of Susan's book:

"The first thing that Ann accomplishes-and that belies all those who claim that does not help conservatives-is that she moves the entire ideological curve to the right. She creates a new point on the scale. By staking out her positions where she does, she makes others on the right appear moderate by comparison. Or at least more moderate"

"She makes the National Review crowd look reasonable by comparison. She makes Bill O'Reilly look reasonable by comparison. If she didn't exist, they would have to invent her. Otherwise people might start thinking there were as conservative as they are."

That's a good start. But Susan uncovers more than just that.

On pages 48-50 Susan cites national studies done from 2000 and 2004. These studies prove that most Americans are actually in the center politically. Most Americans are far to the left of George W. Bush, but far to the right of Bernie Sanders.

When it comes to moral values-or what Ann would have you believe are the only moral values, abortion and gay rights-most Americans tend to be tolerant, moderate. They're still in the middle.

The one person they don't agree with is Ann, who says:

"The swing voters-I like to refer to them as idiot voters because they don't have any philosophical principles. You're either a liberal or you're a conservative if you have an IQ above a toaster."

And since more than 50% of Americans define themselves as neither liberal nor conservative, Ann has just insulted more than 50% of the American population.

Which brings me to my next point:

Why do MSNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and other leaders in the American mainstream media give Ann (a rude, insulting, dishonest right-wing fringe propagandist) a platform to broadcast her extreme right-wing message of hate and extremism?

Actually Susan asks that question too. I can't take credit for being the only person to wonder about that.

Ann's real agenda is wildly out of step with the American public, but America's mainstream media seems to be determined to give this woman an air of legitimacy.

On page 216 Susan gives us something of an answer to the question of the American mainstream media. It's cynical, but it has the benefit of being almost certainly true.

"The networks aren't going to take Ann off unless her ratings fall-unless there is a real backlash-and advertisers get nervous, and her brand of ugly trash talk is considered to go out of style with the public."

"The networks aren't in the business of leadership, after all; they're just in business. Changing discourse will have to come from the bottom up, not the top down."

Pages 215-222 involve some good suggestions on how Middle America can go about changing things for the better.

Of Course Ann Coulter would prefer that you never read this book or attempt change the status quo. Ann would prefer that things in America stay just the way they are.

Which, as far as I'm concerned is perhaps the best reason of all to buy this book.

Estrich wants to prove that Coulter is a right-wing fringe who spews hate everytime she opens her political mouth. Fine, Etrich, but please fix this book. The typed out transcripts of interviews were tiresome, especially with Estrich's snarky comments in italics. I'm not sure what Estrich was saying about race in the Willie Horton debacle; Ann makes a better point that it wasn't about race, that it was about a VIOLENT prisoner getting released on FURLOUGH and RAPING a woman. Estrich is convinced it was about race, bringing up the point that Horton was black. And then expounding on how we're all afraids of blacks, blacks have a rep for being violent, etc. Estrich also clouds over the abortion issue by saying that most Americans support it. So what if they do, Susan? Is she trying to change the hearts of the pro-lifers (me, Ann, etc.). Ann does a better job of converting pro-choicers by describing a late-term abortion as "sticking a fork" in the baby's head.

Now, Estrich is right about public schools, in the way that Ann condemns, condemns, condemns them. Estrich realizes the problems with public education, and that in the worst of schools, the parents are partly to blame. I thank Estrich for being realistic about the condition of under-performing public schools.

Still, the book is dated. No reason to read it, unless you read (and loved or hated) Coulter's Godless.

In keeping with her tradition, Susan has written another insightful book that is not only well written and easy to read, but that truly informs. Well done, and keep them coming!

While some may argue Ann deserves no response, she is a major player on the right's political landscape who influences popular thought and debate. It's fair time that someone provide a thoughtful response to Ann's ideas -- which influence many -- rather than focus on the outrageousness of her words. Estrich systematically addresses Ann's arguments, provides solutions when Ann offers none, and urges us to raise the quality of political debate. A quick, witty, and compelling read.

Susan Estrich disembowels the wretched stinky monster that is the republicans who seem to of cornered the market on hate for the last 10 years . Corporate scandals, election rigging, child molesting, war mongering all coated in a slimy layer of lies and corruption is all that's left of Reagans monster. Not content with creating al Qaeda and wasting billions of taxpayers dollars (dollars they seem to whine about paying 24 hours a day) on a phony war in Iraq. Now hate mongers like Hannity and Limbaugh polute the American airwaves with vitriolic hatespeech that only Hitler could love. Coulter being the beast in the cellar people like Hannity wheel out every couple of days when the stench has started to die down.

I guess losing to Clinton twice drove what was once a fairly respectable political party in fits of despair and rage and they can't seem to let go of it. Estrich, in a wonderfully mocking cover, exposes these monsters for the soulless pitiful fools they are. Sure the rabid will infest this place with their brainwashed rants about liberals this, liberals that but true Americans will reach past the hatemongers and see these animals for what they are.