Taking a Swing at Right Wing

October 31, 2006

In her new book, “Soulless: Ann Coulter and the Right-Wing Church of Hate,” (ReganBooks, 2006), USC Gould School of Law professor Susan Estrich doesn't only challenge right-wing commentator Coulter but also the American public at large.

Although Estrich argues that Coulter has “downgraded political dialog” through controversial attacks, her main hope is to show that Coulter isn't in step with American culture. Coulter, a conservative political commentator, recently published the controversial book “Godless: The Church of Liberalism.”

Estrich will speak about her book Nov. 8 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 7 of the USC Gould School of Law. Following the discussion, Estrich will answer questions and sign books.

“You look at every poll and what you find is a decent, moderate, tolerant nation, being torn apart by the divisive, polarizing, mean-spirited politics of a selfish few,” said Estrich, the Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science at USC. “You find that on the fundamental issues that are supposed to be tearing us apart, we're far more united than you think, and we're being divided for sport. Ann Coulter and those who mimic her are part of that divisiveness.”

Estrich said that the media is partly to blame. “Which is worse? Coulter, the pundit and her headline-grabbing drive-by character assassinations or the networks that happily bring her back for more?” Estrich asks.

The future worries Estrich, who believes there is a growing crop of Coulter “wannabes.”
“I teach undergraduates,” she said. “There's [one] group of kids whom I rarely see in class but who occasionally visit me in the office. They're the would-be pundits from broadcast journalism. . . . But they want to ‘skip right to that part,' as opposed to the campaigns and the teaching, and all that. What they really want, they often tell me, is to be like Ann. When I ask them whether they think they're qualified, they invariably smile. Like Ann, they are certain that they are better looking than the rest of us. Are you going to give her the next generation? It's that simple. That is what it comes down to, at the end. Her or us? Do you let her take over, or do good people wake up and start doing politics again?”

Estrich, a Fox News commentator, has been a professor of law at USC for 16 years. She was the first female president of the Harvard Law Review, the youngest woman to receive tenure at Harvard Law School and the first woman to run a presidential campaign (Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1988).