Posted 11:39 AM by Scoobie Davis

Is Ann Coulter Treasonous? I’m Reporting, You Decide.
In yesterday’s review of Al Franken’s LIES (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, the New York Times’ Janet Maslin criticizes Franken for the following assertion: "You know who were the worst traitors in the history of our country? The Confederates." Maslin quipped, “[Franken] has a little — but only a little — more to add to the latter remark.”

The fact is that Franken didn’t need to. The statement is clearly self-evident to anyone who knows American history. The Confederacy was not only a regime that was based in racial aristocracy; it was the most treasonous and destructive movement in American history. The Confederates are responsible for a war that cost more American lives than any other war; they are responsible for attempting to tear apart the United States. If that wasn’t treason, I don’t know the meaning of the word.

What is most remarkable is that even though the ideas behind the confederacy are treasonous and have been discredited by intelligent people for the past 140 years, there are millions of people who wax nostalgic for it (and more ironic is that the supposed Party of Lincoln is the home for these discredited ideas; in fact, the GOP is the home of another theory that has been discredited for the past 140 years: creationism). Included in the ranks of confederacy apologists is Ann Coulter, who has defended the confederacy and the Confederate battle flag on numerous occasions. I find it ironic that she makes blanket accusations that millions of Americans as treasonous when she has stood up for a rank and treasonous movement.

The fact the Coulter is an apologist for the worst case of treason is indisputable. Her motivation is another story. Coulter grew up in a privileged Connecticut suburb where neo-Confederate ideas were not big. When Coulter decided to become the postergirl for the neo-Confederate movement, did she do what anthropologists refer to as “going native” and develop a kinship with the gap-toothed defenders of the Confederacy? Or did she do it to broaden her base and increase book sales? I don’t have any idea but the end result is the same; we have a situation in which gap-toothed racists who idealize a treasonous ideology are whacking off to the cover of Treason. As Alanis might say, “Isn’t it ironic?”