[Vision2020] [CORRECTED COPY] Coulter's Show-Biz Politics Represent Few

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (June 29, 2006) Spokesman Review with a special thanks to B.
Jay Cooper.

B. Jay Cooper is former deputy press secretary to presidents Ronald Reagan
and George H. W. Bush and served as communications director of the
Republican National Committee under four chairmen.

I mean . . . I wouldn't want to give dick Sherwin the false impression that
I am a mainstream Republican.

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Coulter's show-biz politics represent few 
By B. Jay Cooper

June 29, 2006

I'm a Republican. Ann Coulter does not speak for me. But a lot of people
think she does.

The loudest, noisiest, most sensational and now, most repugnant, voices on
the Republican side of the political spectrum are defining Republicans. I
could blame cable television, but it is tough to blame cable for preferring
long-legged blond female Republicans to balding middle-age guys like me.
They sure make for better-looking TV.

To me, Ann Coulter's exercise of her right to free speech is the political
equivalent of yelling fire in a crowded theater. She crosses the line of
decency. To me, individuals who engage in name-calling and hate speech to
get attention, sell books, increase speaking fees and feather their own
nests, are speaking for themselves, not any political party.
 
My problem is the popular presumption that she represents the Republican
Party. We all get painted with her tainted brush. As a result, the popular
perception holds Republicans are against almost everything from abortion to
homosexuals. And nasty about it to boot. I feel safe in saying that the vast
majority - I would guess all but one - of Republicans is not against
grieving widows created by the worst crime ever committed against America.

I once worked for a senior Reagan administration appointee back in the 1980s
who used to say of the right wing - "they like to look good losing."
Translation: They'd rather go down defending their principles than by - as a
democratic government is supposed to do - finding a compromise that makes
progress for the majority.

That trend of digging in on principle started back then. And, 20 years
later, all Republicans are defined by what I believe is a minority of
Republicans.

To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, I have to tell you: "I know some Republicans.
Some Republicans are friends of mine. And Ann Coulter is no mainstream
Republican. She does not define most of us. She is on the spectrum of
political beliefs, sad to say, but she is not representative of the
majority."

I have talked to a lot of Republicans, including some very young ones and
many - a vast majority of those I spoke with, in a non-scientific way - are
pro-choice. They aren't anti any group or way of life. I know plenty who
believe government can be a solution - as long as it solves something, and
gets out of the way once the solution takes hold. We have been, though,
outshouted and, yes, outworked by the most right wing among us. Why?
Articulating the extreme won us elections.

One might say, well, Republicans won elections, which shows the rabid right
is the majority view. I beg to differ. The country is more right-of-center
than left. Which means right-leaning politicians will win more often than
left-leaning - especially in national elections.

I also think the electorate is about to say: "Enough! We want things to
happen. We want to see you all work together. Disagree, sure. That's
healthy. But get some things done!"

By the way, that doesn't mean the Democrats take over. It means the voters
will be more discerning and look for candidates who will be reasonable in
office - on both sides of the aisle.

When this all began, it gave us people like Ronald Reagan - who knew how to
run a government in a way that made progress for the people. He knew how to
work with Tip O'Neill, his ideological opposite, and O'Neill knew how to
work with him. They did the politics. And they did the governing. And at
night, they had a drink and a few laughs together.

Today, it seems our elected officials - on both sides of the aisle - are
more focused on the politics than on the governing. Like our business
leaders for too many years were focused on the next quarter rather than the
next year, our political leaders are focused on the next election, not the
next generation.

Rockefeller Republicans were never "sexy" to the media. "Moderates" don't
shout. Moderates by their nature are under the radar. They are not too
anything. Just like most people. Most of us are not nearly as good TV as Ann
Coulter.

Here's my point: Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh do
not define me as a Republican, nor most Republicans I know. They just talk
the loudest and hold the megaphones. But to me, that's not politics, that's
show business.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho 

"Uh, how about a 1-strike law. Death doesn't seem too extreme for a Level-3
sex offender."

- Dale "Comb-Over" Courtney (August 3, 2005)