This year, the conservative Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute (CBL) gave author and columnist Ann Coulter its "Woman of the Year" Award during a Saturday luncheon in conjunction with CPAC, with hundreds of college-age women in attendance. Coulter, whose columns appear weekly in HUMAN EVENTS, has spoken on dozens of campuses as a member of the CBL speaker series, spreading the conservative message and helping to nurture future female conservative activists. After being introduced by CBL President Michelle Easton, Coulter said, "I'm humbled and honored" and then launched into a well-received denunciation of American liberalism.
In particular, Coulter also defended much-maligned anti-Communist crusader Sen. Joe McCarthy (R.-Wis.), who died in1957. "McCarthy was the reaction to liberals' fecklessness," she said. "McCarthy was fundamentally right. He was right to focus on the Communist threat within Democratic administrations. . . . The sign that McCarthy was a great man is that 50 years later, he still provokes liberals to a paroxysm of anger and frenzy. Only a few people could be considered to have saved America, and Joe McCarthy is one."
Coulter told her student audience to seek careers "in the nerve centers of culture," not in law or business. "We need conservatives in journalism and the entertainment industry," she said. "And conservatives in teaching." She insisted that there are more conservative-minded people out there than one might think, but that they are intimidated into silence. "You need to speak up. Liberals are bullies," she said. "I don't always do it myself. I admire my conservative friends who speak up."
Coulter said that she did not regret the strong statements she has made against liberals and liberalism. "I regret not being more of a Christian sooner," she said. "It really is a shield and a sword. Christians should not be afraid of anything."
In an interview afterward, Coulter criticized the feminist movement for pushing women away from their traditional role. "Women are the bearers of morality in society," she said. "That's one of the problems with feminism. The women have become so aggressive and bestial." She said that conservatives should not insulate themselves in a ghetto. "I think it's important to go out and change the world."
