Erick Erickson has, with no little fanfare, disinvited Donald Trump from the annual Red State confab, on the grounds that Trump’s various insults directed at Megyn Kelly place him beyond the pale. A few of my friends and colleagues have with furrowed brows noted that this sort of delicate sensibility seems to be a new development for Erickson, who once described David Souter as a “goat-f*****g child molester.” He later apologized for that, but it is hardly the only item on his CV of abuse. We need not revisit the catalog at this time.
Two thoughts here: One, Erick Erickson is not running for president, and, despite Americans’ occasional inability to distinguish between the two, the standards to which we expect our presidential contenders to adhere are not necessarily those that apply to commentators; Rush Limbaugh can make jokes that Scott Walker can’t. Two, we should greet this with some charity of spirit — more joy in heaven and all that — charity being a commodity that is in critically short supply in our political discourse just now. If Erick Erickson is endeavoring to be better than he sometimes has been, then good for him, and so should we all.