Ann Coulter To Mediaite: Jon Stewart’s Audience Is ‘A Bunch Of Losers’ And Other Enlightening Bon Mots
I wanted to address the claim from some on the left that there is an anti-intellectual element to the Tea Party and the greater right, partly due to the reaction to people like President Obama who have multiple degrees and such.
I’m glad you brought that up because it drives me crazy. I think it’s the exact opposite. I mean, look at the Tea Party– these are people with jobs who are busy and what are they doing? Reading the Constitution, citing the Constitution, holding politicians’ feet to the fire. And, I might add, CNN acts like it’s a big intellectual station and, ooh, Fox News, so low-brow. I’ve done interviews on Fox News and I’ve done three interviews on CNN– the only person who so much as asked me about my book was the comedian Joy Behar. Fareed [Zakaria] manifestly had not read my book, but that was a pre-tape. At one point, he said– the big intellectual– “in your book you say Republican politicians shouldn’t compromise.” And I looked at him slack-jawed and said “where do I say that? You haven’t even cracked this book.” After promising me, by the way– I gave him my personal copy when I ran into him the day before at CNN. “Don’t worry about it, we’ll talk about your book.” Not a single question about the book. The only question he asks– which he then cuts from air– is completely obtuse and has nothing to do with my book. They don’t read books over there.
Whenever they do surveys on how Democrats have more higher education degrees than Republicans. I would just like to point out that most of those degrees are in education. And although I knew a few smart people who have degrees in education, they are few and far between. A Master’s Degree in Education usually means you are smarter than the average person.
As someone with several higher education degrees, did you ever feel lumped into the academic elite that the right allegedly distrusts?
No, not at all. They love me, I speak to Tea Parties all the time. I don’t buy into the claim that the Tea Party is anti-intellectual. And, by the way, look at the intellect alleged on the left, on MSNBC. Chris Matthews went to some bush league school. Keith Olbermann went to the cow school at Cornell and then goes around lying about how he went to an Ivy League school– until exposed by me. Okay, Rachel Maddow went to a good school, finally they have a smart one; same with Lawrence O’Donnell. But by and large I do not think the credentials on MSNBC are that impressive. And the ones who do have impressive credentials– the whole concept in my book of groupthink helped explain to me how someone like Lawrence O’Donnell, Frank Rich, Jonathan Alter— they all do well on their SAT tests because they all went to good colleges; I think they all went to Harvard. But they sound so stupid when they’re on TV talking about politics. A man in a crowd loses some of his intelligence. They’re part of that in-crowd where they become more simple-minded and believe myths and become childlike. It’s all explained with groupthink because they’re not stupid people and yet they seem so stupid.
Well, the other side to that coin is what you were talking about earlier with the fragmentation on the right, and how it’s harder to get things done without– not groupthink, but some message discipline. Though I would argue that discipline exists in Congress with Republicans when you look at vote counts and dissent within the party.
Recently, that has more to do with more Americans getting involved via the Tea Party and paying attention to what their politicians are doing and holding their feet to the fire. But from my side, it looks to me like the Democrats are a lot more organized and good old getting rid of members who are not going to serve their political interests– in the case of [Anthony] Weiner, he wasn’t helping them out, so they’re going to get rid of him. Republicans… ugh, I hate to criticize Republicans but, to give a small example, and I don’t mean to rag on him, he’s done some good things, but John Boehner just isn’t our best speaker. Why are you sending him on Meet the Press? Steve King: very articulate. Allen West: very articulate. Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl. I think I wrote this in one of my columns: can I please pick the Republicans who are allowed to be on TV? Democrats are much better at saying “okay, you go on TV; you’re not so good, you don’t go on TV.”
But they had Anthony Weiner on TV all the time.
Yes but they had to get rid of him now. He was a good attack dog for them and he is probably the second Democrat Republicans would be happiest to see this happen to after Alan Grayson.
NEXT PAGE: Which horror movie does Anthony Weiner remind Ann Coulter of?
