No doubt the time will come when you are confronted with the opportunity to talk to a conservative celebrity. That is, someone other than the co-worker, blog troll or neighbor. Like, say, an Ann Coulter. Be forewarned. For the audacity of speaking to one of these greats, you could be in physical danger.
Take the case of Mike Tracey, a student at the College of New Jersey, where Coulter spoke on Feb. 18. Tracey began his encounter with Coulter during the Q & A portion of her "speech," when he asked a mild question about Coulter's having said that President Obama is friendly toward terrorists because his middle name is Hussein. He asked her if she thought all Americans with "Muslim-sounding names" should be "considered sympathetic to terrorists."
Demonstrating her tried and true debating technique—showcased in her manual How to Talk to A Liberal (If You Must)—Coulter shrieked, "You can't possibly be that stupid!" and then talked about Dan Quayle. Afterward, while Coulter was signing books on stage, Tracey got in line to ask a follow-up question because, as he noted, "I did not find her response to be satisfactory."
How dare he?! He got a satisfactory answer; she called him "stupid" and talked about Dan Quayle. What more could the rabble want from Lady Ann? He's lucky she didn't rake his face with her fingernails.
As Tracey walked on stage, he was detained by two security cops. Because he did not have a book to sign, he was not allowed to approach Lady Ann. He explained that he wanted to ask a followup question, then sidestepped the guards and walked to the table. Coulter recoiled in paranoiac horror as he approached. Eeek, a liberal!
While he tried to ask his question, Tracey was forcibly apprehended, dragged across the stage and down the steps and shoved toward a side exit door. He did not get the hint—that he was required to exit stage left—and instead went back into the audience to join his friends.
He was tackled, thrown to the floor and beaten enough to leave a large abrasion on his head, then handcuffed and thrown on the ground outside the auditorium, in the process losing his glasses. He was placed in a police car while "officers" called him names they'd apparently learned from Coulter's manual: "fucking asshole," "faggot" and "shithead." He was taken to the campus police station, forcibly removed from the vehicle, and, in his own words, "shoved and jeered at by an officer as I made my way out of the car and toward the station." They taunted him at the police station, and he was never read his Miranda rights, never allowed to make a phone call. He was charged with disorderly conduct and released.
On one point I agree with Tracey's detractors. He should have vacated the stage when the guards told him to, perhaps asking his question en route. Or he should have bitten the bullet, bought a book and gotten her to sign it. Then he could have sold it for twice the cost to one of the Young Republicans with posters of Ann in their dorm rooms.
On his Facebook page account of the incident, Tracey appears to be an articulate young man with no violent streak (and a clean police record). He is a student at the university and, in effect, pays the salaries of those cops with his tuition.
One part of his account rang untrue, though. He wrote, "I hope my conservative and Republican friends, of which I have many, will take just as forceful a stand on this issue as would anyone of any other political persuasion."
You've still got a lot to learn about "conservative friends," Mike.
When contacted, both the campus security office and the university president's office declined to comment on the incident.
