The Trouble with Treason (David Horowitz regarding Ann Coulter)

Frontpagemagazine.com ^ | 7/8/03 | David Horowitz

[Steel Wolf]

Truman's fierce opposition to Communism? That's like saying McArthur was soft on Communism. China teetered and fell on his watch, an event that was clearly going to happen without our intervention. His track record in the Korean War was also less than stellar. I don't remember off the top of my head which other nations fell to Communism during his tenure, but I'd suspect that Cuba was one of them.

Many of the lingering security problems that we face today are directly the result of Truman's soft policies. He may have been the Democrat who was toughest on Communism, but he wasn't nearly tough enough.

[jammer]

Good question, especially given the ascendency of the de Gaulle sentiment in France. I don't have a good answer--other than to say that Truman could have at least given some sort of lip service, and perhaps some "covert" diplomatic aid with France, to Ho. I think those snubs became very important.

Disclaimer: I am one of the first to criticize others for making decisions about politicians' actions, safely esconced in different times and different circumstances from the politicians! So, I probably cannot go after Truman too hard, since he did have one or two other things on his mind.

I think the disclaimer points up some things that historians ignore about McCarthy, also. After all this was a time when people were SCARED--and rightfully so. Sputnik hadn't happened yet, but we HAD lost the nuclear secrets with Fuchs, the Rosenbergs, et al, and Stalin was seen as evil incarnate (which he was). So, to cast aspersions at McCarthy after the fact and divorced from the circumstances is ludicrous.

[wayoverontheright]

Her broad brush use of the word treason is by design a wake up call for those like Matthews who, unwittingly or not, supported the Clintons, who if not for the internet, Fox News, etc., may have succeeded in dismantling our military, may have succeeded in supplanting capitalism with socialism, which was and is their lifelong goal.

I was a lefty at one time and my wake-up call came when an economics professor, a defector from Cuba, enlightened me to the socialism he had seen first hand, and made me realize "the stupidos I was hanging out with" were not on the right side of the argument.

[Alberta's Child]

I don't know which affair you are referring to, but the Ellen Rometsch affair took place in 1962 or 1963 while JFK was president.

[Alberta's Child]

One of Coulter's problems is that she often seems like two different people. The Coulter who appears on television is far less impressive than the one who writes books.

[Poohbah]

Hmm. Maybe the real author of her books is some guy named Casper.

[MEG33]

Unlike Cheney,I think Truman was really out of the loop when Roosevelt died and was surrounded by a lot of people who at least were Soviet lovers .These were perilous times and I can't figure out all the things we might have done.

[William McKinley]

Leon Czolgosz is an anarchist who acheived infamy. And he was at it in 1901.

[Alberta's Child]

One of the greatest myths of modern American history is that the Vietnam War was an anti-Communist effort at its root. In fact, Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist first and foremost, and had been trying to include a resolution of "the Vietnam question" in almost every major treaty in Europe for decades leading up to the war.

[Alberta's Child]

Does she have a ghostwriter for her books?

[Poohbah]

Does she have a ghostwriter for her books?

Yup, some dude named Casper (come on, get the joke already :o)

[Northern Yankee]

Good points!

I too tire of the liberal clap trap that is so pervasive in mainstream media.

Ann is refreshing, and is willing to take risks to get her viewpoint across. She also doesn't become shrill during an interview, and holds her own.

She's a great Profile In Courage.

[TheDon]

It is interesting that everyone mentions they didn't like Joe's tactics, but they never seem to give examples. More regurgitation of liberal spin?

[TheDon]

"The problem with Coulter’s book is that she is not willing to concede that McCarthy was, in fact, demagogic in any sense at all, or that that his recklessness injured the anti-Communist cause. Ron Radosh, Harvey Klehr and John Haynes have distinguished themselves as historians by documenting the Communist menace that many liberals discounted. But they have also documented the irresponsible antics of McCarthy, which undermined the anti-Communist cause. Coulter dismisses such conservative criticisms of McCarthy as caving in to the liberals. She is wrong."

Looks like he missed this part of the book:

"Though McCarthy is sniffed at even by conservatives for his flamboyant rhetoric, in 'Witness', Chambers explains the importance of a fellow such as McCarthy. Referring to the Hiss hearings, Chambers writes that theatrics were 'almost the only weapon the commitee possessed.' Without a 'flair for showmanship,' the committee's extremely important work exposing the Communist conspiracy would have been smothered in silence and reduced to nullity."

So far, Ann provides the most specific mention of Joe's tactics, and it merely mentions theatrics. Ann does provide her reason for Joe's tactics, and her own. You may disagree, may conservatives do, but they are effective. Ann's book isn't where it is because she was "nice", and scholarly.

[Alberta's Child]

LOL! I'm still drinking my coffee this morning.

[Rummyfan]

Et tu David?

[ought-six]

I don't like broad-brushing the Dims, because there are in fact some who are upright, honorable folks who shun the general extremism of their party (Senator John Breaux of Louisiana, Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, for example). Unfortunately, they are basically outcasts in their own party, because the Democratic party is clearly on a solid leftist tack. The main components of their party platform would shock and dismay the average Democrat of 40 years ago: abortion on demand; rampant homosexuality; fanatical anti-gun zealotry (thus they are fanatically anti-freedom); re-distribution of wealth; environmental terrorism; and absolute power for the government.

[Richard Kimball]

bump

[alnick]

Someone on the forum here said he got the best of her

She kept her cool. Matthews sputtered and spit and ran his mouth faster than usual. He would not let her get a word in. His questions were irrelevant to the book and he would not allow her to explain that. He just tried to get her to give him a list of names of traitors. She refused since current individuals is not the point of her book. He ended with the comment that her last book was titled, "Slander;" this book should have that title as well.

[TheDon]

LOL! I read an FR poster state that Ann is good at the short attack, but doesn't have the ability to write a well reasoned book like "Treason". Now you are saying just the opposite. Just a humorous observation. Having read over half of "Treason" so far, I think she is fabulous at both.