Ann Coulter is many things: syndicated columnist, television personality, budding actress (Sharknado 3), cunning troll of screeching daytime television hosts. She’s also a polemicist of the highest order, one whose lavishly researched books come wrapped in language some find offensive or hilarious, depending on what side they fall on (and their senses of humor). “People who live in gated communities tell us fences don’t work”, she reminds us. At some point one tires of the echo chambers; If nothing else, Coulter always manages to make the conversation…livelier.
Her latest, ¡Adios, America!, comes packing a subtitle that’s anything but subtle: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into A Third World Hellhole. Believe it or not, it’s actually one of Coulter’s more somber efforts, using her trademark humor to engage even when the subject isn’t (“In 1991, Hmong immigrants in Colorado purchased a fifteen-year old girl from her Hmong parents in Fresno for $8,300, not including shipping.”).
It’s also slightly misleading, as she uses her podium to attack not just liberals, her frequent targets, but those on the right who would offer up America wholesale under the guise of compassion and diversity, resulting in the exploitation of a more-than-willing workforce, as well as millions of new residents who will – most likely – bloc vote for Democrat candidates. That and cheap maids.
Love or hate her, there’s no denying Coulter’s at her best when sticking to the facts, and here she comes packing. Of the book’s nearly four-hundred pages over a fourth (100-plus notes + index pages alone) document her fastidious research and fact-checking to buttress her assertion that politicos have read the democratic tea leaves and placed all their chips on what many have called “the browning of America”, where 85% of new immigrants hail from third-world nations. By her accounting the much-touted “11 million” immigrant tally is a fallacy; the real number is far closer to 30 million, and growing.
Yes, there are moments when Coulter’s words and arguments come dangerously close to xenophobia and actual racism (“changing America’s ethnicity changes the idea of America, too.”), but let’s not pretend she’s here to give both sides equal time. Regardless if you find her assertions, arguments, or interpretations of the facts appealing or insulting, there’s little doubt something troubling is going on here.
At one time America embraced selective immigration, provided its new residents embrace their new home and blend themselves into the melting pool of cultural assimilation. The focus has since shifted to the idea of ‘cultural diversity’ and European-style multiculturalism, often at the expense of the native population.
Opportunistic politicians and corporations seeking cheap labor have encouraged cottage industries for those skirting immigration law, both literally and figuratively, with Tammany Hall-style corruption and pandering to push policies that reduce penalties for those already here illegally (sorry, undocumented) or refusing to button up Constitutional loopholes such as the Jus soli Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that grants citizenship to ‘anchor babies’ – and their relatives – of foreign parents by virtue of their being physically born in the United States. Corporations profit wildly by the issuing of H-1B (hi-tech immigrant worker) visas and welcoming asylum abusers at face value, both cheaper labor than native options.
Moreover, Coulter argues, is that many of these new immigrants import with them nastier aspects of their culture we’d rather not have here, including sexual proclivities that would constitute, by the standards of most developed nations, child rape.
Other colorful importations include animal sacrifice, honor killings, gang rape, as well as the general devaluation of women in all facets of society. The politically-correct zeal to accept all cultures and their values as ‘equal’ to their Western counterparts has caused many to not only overlook such primitive ideologies and backwards-thinking artifacts, but encourage them. This includes the cleansing of news reporting from ethnic and immigration status, discouraging any ethnographic collusion
Most damning is Coulter’s systematic dissection of how most mainstream media outlets show a shocking disregard to accurately reporting facts, especially those that might portray immigrants’ status in a negative light. Terms such as “illegal immigrants” are minimized or banned entirely from headlines, substituted with blander alternatives like “undocumented worker”, “immigrant”, or often just “man” or “men”. The elimination of adjectives – and objective reporting – often make finding statistical consensus impossible, especially by those
The key words (indexable and searchable) would be “white”, “fraternities”, and “privilege”, which not only make great divisive headlines but help corrupt news outlets and blogs grab huge traffic, paving the way for exploitable national crises.
Whether intentional or otherwise, by removing racial or other ethnographic identifiers from these reports it makes statistical clusters nigh impossible to calculate with any honesty. Headlines like “White Cop Kills Black Teenager” are infinitely more searchable than “Man Pleads Guilty To Rape”, and much easier to sharpen your pitchforks to.
Not sure if this qualifies as a positive (or negative, if you’re a longtime fan) but Coulter eases up the ad hominem attacks on some of her biggest targets, giving the word ‘“liberal” a break from its overuse as a euphemism. Bill Clinton’s infidelities and Ted Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick adventure is mostly absent, though Coulter rips into the late senator’s spirited support of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 as a precursor for things to come.
She saves her most searing invective for Carlos Slim, i.e. “The New York Times’ Sugar Daddy”, dedicating an entire chapter to one of the world’s richest men – gains gotten by exploiting immigrants, she argues.
Even Republicans and Conservatives don’t escape from Coulter’s wrath, pro-immigration reform Presidential candidates Mark Rubio and Jeb Bush, especially. One could make the argument the entirety of her missive is actually directed at a sad-sack GOP, particularly those who would offer the olive branch of amnesty (or ‘normalization’ as Rand Paul would call it) to gain favor with a growing Hispanic population.
If Ann Coulter attacking Republicans sounds familiar, it should, and in line with her last effort, Never Trust a Liberal Over 3 – Especially a Republican, which I remarked might be “the first Coulter book conservatives can share with their liberal friends.” It’s doubtful ¡Adios, America! will make progressive gift-giving rounds in a similar fashion, but it’s one hell of a conversation starter – that is, for those that actually want to have a conversation.
