The Five Values Ann Coulter Lacks: Respect

RESPECT
Ann Coulter is the perfect example of so many things that are wrong with the right -- no honesty, no compassion, no responsibility, and no courage -- but perhaps most of all she exemplifies a total lack of respect.

Respect is one of the building blocks of good character, and it's distinguished from its "neighbor" value, compassion, in two important respects: One, it includes SELF-respect, and two, rather than involving empathy only for living things, it includes such qualities as honoring the law, deference to other people's peaceful religious symbols, and so on.

Coulter and the right, of course, respect nothing: worse, they pretend to respect all sorts of things, like the flag, "our troops," and "freedom," while really merely exploiting the electorate's feelings about these symbols, people, and ideas for their own gain.

This hypocrisy is clear when they get all in a huff because MoveOn.org publishes a mocking (if amateurish) ad about General Patraeus's name ("betray us") but find it entirely acceptable to viciously attack the reputations of bona fide soldiers like John Kerry, and even in their own party, John McCain, when it suits their selfish, immediate ends.

Coulter's lack of respect is, in fact, finally marginalizing her. The statements she's made about the 9-11 widows (never seen women so happy about their husbands' deaths) and about Elizabeth Edwards's cancer and the death of John and Elizabeth Edwards's son are so mean spirited that, I hope, the "normal" end of the conservative spectrum is at least embarrassed by her.

Bush is a study in a lack of respect, however, which is more interesting than Coulter's case. Bush's sloppy mode of speaking, his chewing with his mouth open at diplomatic events, his incessant monkey-like mugging for the camera, all speak to a lack of respect for anyone and anything outside his billionaire-baby circle, a lack of respect borne of his never having to make a living or so much as wash a dish, much less clean up his own larger mistakes. Cheney's lack of respect (the infamous "go fuck yourself") is more ham-handed, less "cute" perhaps than the spoiled-puppy demeanor of Bush, partly due to the simple fact that Cheney is a really ugly fat man, while Bush has the physique of a billionaire baby who was on the T-ball team, etc., even if the other kids were told to let him win because their dads all work for his dad.

Limbaugh's mocking of Michael J. Fox's Parkinsons symptoms was another great example of the right's lack of respect.

You get the idea. Next up: Responsibility