“You sound like Obama!” Sean Hannity exclaimed to Ann Coulter after his incredulous interview with the conservative firebrand last night on Fox News (watch the video below).
Coulter had just finished explaining her assertion that the Republicans in the House should agree to raise taxes on the wealthy so that they wouldn’t get blamed for taxes being raised on all Americans as would happen under the conditions known as the “Fiscal Cliff” automatic triggers scheduled for January 1, 2013.
When Hannity asserted that “we don’t have a spending problem, Ann,” she responded with “we lost the election, Sean.” Repeating the unusually defeatist tone, Coulter later said, “They’re going to lose, they’re going to lose…” It was remarkable and dumbfounding.
It’s always great to see Sean Hannity use his rhetorical skills to cut down a guest’s argument and articulate conservative principles but it’s disheartening to see him do it to someone like Coulter. What’s going on here, Ann?
The Ann Coulter we’ve grown to admire over the years is a person who would march into any battle and take on all challenges with the righteousness as her sword and unassailable logic as her shield. She’s a person who has gladly confronted any challenger knowing that right was on her side, politics be damned. And now, this same warrior is recommending that Republicans concede the most fundamental position that has bonded the disparate coalitions that make up the party for over forty years, that being that the deficit woes of the federal government must be solved through spending cuts and not tax increases because tax increases don’t ultimately raise revenue or solve the nation’s fiscal mess.
According to Coulter, it is more important now, for PR purposes, to cave on this fundamental principle, lest the media blame Republicans for the pending fiscal cliff disaster. She doesn’t seem concerned about the PR disaster that will ensue within the fractious Republican Party.
Toward the end of the verbal ping-pong match, and exasperated Hannity said to Coulter, “You are scaring me. You are giving in to this narrative.” It’s hard to disagree with him, on both counts.
As Andrew Breitbart warned, the rhetoric of Occupy has clearly become part of the mainstream political debate, even sucking in some conservatives. The 99% to 1% contrast was a key Occupy talking point; now it’s been admitted to the discussion on the fiscal cliff as a well-accepted part of the conversation. Coulter’s cave shows that Occupy won in the long term, even if it lost in the short term.