Politics & Power Quote by Ann Coulter

Coulter’s line is built as a moral trap: if you object, you’ve already stepped into the framing she wants. The sentence yokes “patriotism” to a single acceptable posture - hawkish certainty - then casts any dissent as not merely wrong but actively complicit. It’s less an argument than a courtroom trick, the kind that swaps evidence for insinuation and dares the jury to feel disgust before they think.

The intent is to fuse two accusations that hit different emotional registers. First, “indignant” paints liberals as thin-skinned elites obsessed with reputation. Then “work overtime” and “give terrorists a cushion” jumps from attitude to treason-adjacent action. That leap is the point: by collapsing critique of policy (civil liberties, war skepticism, due process) into “helping terrorists,” she converts complexity into a loyalty test. The “laugh at dumb Americans” clause supplies class resentment, positioning patriotism as authentic, working-class feeling and liberalism as sneering cosmopolitan performance.

Context matters: Coulter’s brand crystallized in the post-9/11, Iraq-era media ecosystem where cable news rewarded maximal antagonism and “with us or against us” logic. This is not policy writing; it’s mobilization copy. The subtext is that liberal concern for rights, proportionality, or international law is itself a luxury belief - and that the only safe nation is one where dissent is socially stigmatized.

Rhetorically, the sentence works by stacking verbs (“question,” “work overtime,” “laugh”) to create momentum and inevitability. If you’re already angry, it’s gasoline. If you’re not, it still pressures you to pick a side - and to treat nuance as betrayal.