What Coulter fails to realize, or perhaps just refuses to admit, is that it is irrelevant whether she is anti-Semitic. “With great power comes great responsibility,” as Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben Parker wisely said. Once you reach a certain level in our society, whether as an athlete or an actress or a journalist, you have influence and cannot disclaim all responsibility for your actions.

The firehose of hate streaming from the angriest bowels of the Internet has been too strong these past few days (and past few months in response to her immigration comments) for Coulter to have plausible deniability. Coulter may not hate the Jews or Mexicans or any other non-WASPs, but her tweets have encouraged and emboldened those who do.

Likewise for Trump: he may “love” the Mexicans as he claims, but his comments are being celebrated by people with swastikas and white supremacist slogans in their online profiles. Something he is saying is making these people believe he will stop the “browning of America” that Coulter complains about.

With many Americans still economically struggling and strong emotions on all sides of the immigration debate, the draw of tribalism and the impulse to blame “others” and “outsiders” present dangerous temptations. When Trump blames China and Mexico for America’s problems, and Coulter condemns candidates who pander to the “f—ing Jews,” they are acting as catalysts for this animosity, and are accomplices to the spread of these hateful and un-American ideas.