By contrast, Beinart dismissed Republicans' allegation that Kerry is a flip-flopper and asserted that the Bush administration's entire rationale for the war in Iraq has been discredited. He dismissed Coulter's statements about Islam. "There are certain arguments that are not worthy of a response," he said.
The debate lasted one hour and was moderated by Professor of Philosophy Alexander George. George asked student-written questions for the first half of the debate, then took questions from the audience for the remainder of the time.
Coulter chided the audience for its applause and hissing. She also made a joking reference to oral sex in response to a question about homosexuality.
Coulter then described marriage as a 2000-year-old heterosexual tradition. "Marriage is supported by all three major religions, including your favorite, the Muslims," she said to the audience.
She also made strong accusations against individuals voting for Kerry. "If you're voting for John Kerry, then you don't love your country," she said.
One student questioned Coulter's accusation. "Ms. Coulter, I was a boy scout, played baseball and registered voters when I was younger. How do I hate America?" he asked.
Coulter responded, "Well, keep talking."
The student explained that he had tried to bring an American flag into the Chapel. "They probably thought you [were going to] burn it," said Coulter. "You are voting for the pacifist appeasement movement if you vote for John Kerry."
The audience, comprised mainly of Amherst students, cheered in response to several of Beinart's statements whereas Coulter received a mixture of applause and jeers. Perhaps the most strident audience reaction came when a student asked Coulter why she thinks that Christianity is better than Islam. "[Christianity] apparently leads to a lot less planes flying into buildings, beheadings, bombings and disembowelments," she answered.
Beinart scrutinized the Bush administration, particularly its decision to invade Iraq. He said that Kerry had voted in the Senate to authorize the use of force in Iraq in order to put force behind the United Nations weapons inspectors as they attempted to evaluate Saddam Hussein's weapons programs. "It was just a vote for authorization," he said. "[The Bush administration] think[s] people aren't smart enough to recognize that distinction."
Beinart also defended Kerry from the flip-flopper label. "It seems to me that the flip-flopping charge can be applied to any politician," he said. "The idea that John Kerry is more of a flip-flopper is purely a concoction of the Bush campaign."
One student asked Beinart if Kerry's foreign policy would preclude sending troops to fight the widespread genocide in Sudan. Beinart responded in the negative and contested this with President Bush's record on humanitarian intervention. "No, and George Bush ruled it out immediately. Perhaps it's because he never really cared about genocide in Africa," Beinart said. "He has consistently turned a blind eye to genocide in the third world."
Coulter offered a different viewpoint. She said liberal leaders choose to send American troops to intervene only in those conflicts that do not threaten the national security of the United States. "Yeah, send 'em to the Balkans, to Rwanda, wherever there is no chance it will make America safer," Coulter said, mocking what she sees as liberals' foreign policy.
The two sparred on domestic issues as much as on national security and foreign policy. Coulter said that the majority of Americans oppose abortion and Democrats are obstructing a vote on the issue. "Privacy is guaranteed by the Constitution," Beinart responded. "It is not up for popular vote."
Coulter said that education and health care should be subject to the free-market principles of economic competition. "When you want to buy a computer, you expect to pay for it yourself; when you buy a house, you expect to pay for it yourself," she said. She called Kerry's healthcare plan impractical. "Liberals are trying to solve a problem created by government with more government," she said. "Competition gives you good stuff at good prices." Coulter argued that more government involvement would lead to rationing, and cited Communist committees as examples.
Beinart had a different take on the realities of health care. "If you want to see rationing in health care, I suggest you go to any inner city hospital today," he said.
Coulter also defended Bush's education policies. "If you're not performing, you won't be funded," she said. "That's precisely the point of No Child Left Behind."
Both Beinart and Coulter supported affirmative action, though Coulter insisted that it should apply only to blacks and Beinart said he preferred a class-based system to a race-based system. "If there's affirmative action, it should be for blacks and blacks alone," Coulter said. "They were enslaved; they were lynched."
Many students found most of Coulter's arguments offensive. "It's not that I have a problem with conservatives," said Janani Ramachandran '08. "I have a problem with the College spending money for hate speech. It's not that [Coulter] doesn't have some valid points that I can respect, but such ideas get clouded by sweeping statements which are closed-minded, racist and ignorant."
Beinart has been editor of The New Republic since 1999. He writes The New Republic's weekly column, and he has written for several other publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek and Time. He graduated from Yale University in 1993, winning both Rhodes and Marshall scholarships for graduate study at Oxford University.
Coulter is the author of four books, three of which were New York Times best-sellers. After practicing in a private law practice, Coulter worked for the senate Judiciary Committee, where she handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham (R-Mich). Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review.