You can tell a lot about a political candidate by the people and organizations that they choose to align themselves with. And for Mitt “severe conservative” Romney, few things tell us more about his inability and unwillingness to stand up to the reactionary extremists that have taken over the GOP than his embrace of Ann Coulter.
Coulter, of course, is the conservative firebrand who regularly launches vitriolic attacks on Democrats, liberals, and others in her regular appearances on television and through the eight books published under her name. Coulter endorsed Romney’s Presidential campaigns in both 2008 and 2012, regularly speaks up for his campaign in her weekly column, and promoted Romney’s 2012 campaign in her speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee (“CPAC”).
Now a political candidate cannot and should not be held responsible for everything that everyone who claims to be a supporter says or does. But in this case, Romney has embraced Coulter’s support, even launching a commercial in Iowa during the primaries that included a clip of Coulter speaking favorably about Romney. As such, it is appropriate to ask Romney just how many of Coulter’s beliefs and statements he agrees with. For example, does Romney agree with Coulter that:
* “Science . . . completely discredited Darwin’s theory of evolution“
* “It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact.“
* ”They’re [Democrats] always accusing us of repressing their speech. I say let’s do it. Let’s repress them. Frankly, I’m not a big fan of the First Amendment.”
* “We just want Jews to be perfected … That is what Christianity is … that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews.”
* “I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo.”
* “My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building”
* “Way too many people vote. We should have fewer people voting. There ought to be a poll tax to take the literacy test before voting.”
* “The ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man´s dominion over the Earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet – it´s yours. That´s our job: drilling, mining and stripping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars – that´s the Biblical view.”
* ”The Democrats are giving aid and comfort to the enemy for no purpose other than giving aid and comfort to the enemy. There is no plausible explanation for the Democrats’ behavior other than that they long to see U.S. troops shot, humiliated, and driven from the field of battle. They fill the airwaves with treason, but when called to vote on withdrawing troops, disavow their own public statements. These people are not only traitors, they are gutless traitors.”
Today’s Republican Party has been taken over by reactionary extremists, such as Ann Coulter. As we’ve explained previously, Mitt Romney has plainly decided that rather than try to bring the Republican Party back to some semblance of rationality, he is more than willing to cheer on the crazy in a desperate attempt to become President. With Romney’s embrace of Ann Coulter, we have seen yet another example of the type of severely conservative viewpoints Romney would promote, rather than stand up to, if he were to become President.
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Earlier editions of this series include Questions for Mitt Romney on the NRA and guns, Jerry Falwell and Liberty University, and Robert Bork.
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