"Demonic -- How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America," by Ann Coulter
Jeff Glor talks to Ann Coulter about "Demonic."
Jeff Glor: What inspired you to write the book?
Ann Coulter: How difficult it can be to talk to liberals.
You're talking about Fannie Mae pushing subprime mortgages on the banks, bigger banks bundling the mortgages, and then the real estate market tanking and blowing up the entire economy - and suddenly they're babbling about Bush driving a car into a ditch.
You're talking about nuclear deterrence and Reagan spending the Soviets into the ground - and they're saying "You can't hug a child with nuclear arms."
They're hysterical about dubious allegations that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas talked dirty to a co-worker -- and then a few years later they're squealing about "sexual McCarthyism" and ferociously defending Bill Clinton for summoning state employee Paula Jones to a hotel room and dropping his pants in front of her.
They're enraged that Bush invaded Iraq for purposes of "regime change" and then turn around and hail Obama as a geopolitical genius for intervening in Egypt and Libya solely for purposes of regime change.
Also, they lied to me about "No Blood for Oil." Where's the oil and why do they always get my hopes up?
All this -- the left's image-based arguments, combined with their frequent adoption of utterly contradictory positions, it turns out, are classic earmarks of mob mentality.
Then, of course, there are the frequent explosions of violence from the left, when mob psychology leads to something more frightening than confusing, and becomes an actual, literal mob.
So I sensed there was something mob-like about liberals and began investigating group-think, herd behavior and the psychology of crowds. It turns out liberals have it all!
JG: What surprised you the most during the writing process?
AC: After reading a number of books about mobs, herds, riots, etc, I read Gustave Le Bon, the French social scientist, who discovered groupthink. Page after page of his book, "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind," describes liberal behavioral patterns with uncanny accuracy.
Also, though I discovered this some years ago, I really talked about it for the first time in this book: What a great man and American hero Thurgood Marshall was. I put him in the tradition of our founding fathers, even above Martin Luther King.
JG: What would you be doing if you weren't a writer?
AC: Sitting on a park bench, mumbling to myself and writing furious notes in my folder.
JG: What else are you reading right now?
AC: At the moment, nothing - I'm starting my book tour!
JG: What's next for you?
AC: The book tour.
For more on "Demonic," visit the Random House website.
