Keeping the herd together by the use of moral condemnation, Erick Erickson, back on Thursday, has a solemn pronouncement:
While most media headlines today are about Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing, Ronna McDaniel’s next move, or the fallout from the bridge collapse in Baltimore, today will be one of the most consequential days in the 2024 presidential election. Joe Biden is screwing up Manhattan traffic with a fundraiser featuring Barack Obama and Bill Clinton that should clear his campaign upwards of $25 million.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump will be attending the wake of 31-year-old NYPD officer Jonathan Diller on Long Island. Diller was murdered by a career criminal with 21 prior arrests who viciously gunned him down during a routine traffic stop. Diller leaves behind a wife and one-year-old child named Ryan.
The campaign split screen happening in New York is emblematic of how voters increasingly view this race. Joe Biden fundraises with millionaires and billionaires in Manhattan while refusing to say the names of the 13 fallen Marines in Kabul or Laken Riley in Athens who died as a result of his policies. As Trump sits at an NYPD funeral at the request of the family, Joe Biden is attempting to push through a radical judicial nominee who serves on the board of an anti-police nonprofit organization.
Erickson’s got a small problem. Solemn Pronouncements don’t work if your “facts” aren’t. For example, at the State of the Union, he said the name Laken Riley. Anyone who tries to verify Erickson’s statement will discover it to be false.
Similarly, Biden attended the return of the Marines lost to our enemies in Afghanistan during the evacuation:
On Aug. 29, President Joe Biden paid his respects to U.S. service members who were killed in a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport. The president and first lady Jill Biden bowed and placed their hands over their hearts as 11 caskets were presented at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. …
The full video of the dignified transfer ceremony shows Biden honored each of the fallen U.S. service members. [USA Today]
He was there, he honored those who fell because of the former President’s decision to sign a legally binding treaty requiring the United States to leave. Through this act, he honored those fallen heroes.
And, finally, it only takes a little thought to realize that blaming Biden for a bloodthirsty criminal’s actions is intellectually dishonest. If Trump had the opportunity to jail this killer, why didn’t he? Should we blame the lack of the wall when those parts of the wall that have been built by Trump turned out to be a waste? Would he be to blame for a bad wall?
The fact is that, in what some call “this fallen world,” terrible things happen, and sometimes policy is ineffective, whether it’s Democratic policy regarding immigrants or Republican policies regarding gun control. Thoughts and prayers simply do not work. And, yet, each side is willing to take some losses while pursuing their favored policies.
So what of Erickson’s claim about the money raised by the three Presidents? The Radio City Music Hall event was exceedingly popular:
Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and some big names from the entertainment world teamed up Thursday night to deliver a rousing New York embrace of President Joe Biden that hauled in a record-setting $26 million-plus for his reelection campaign.
The mood at Radio City Music Hall was electric as Obama praised Biden’s willingness to look for common ground and said, “That’s the kind of president I want.” Clinton said simply of the choices facing voters in 2024: “Stay with what works.” [AP]
Erickson may be right: $26 million is not peanuts. That Biden didn’t cancel a long planned event is no surprise; if the Diller family had invited President Biden to the funeral, he probably have tried to attend.
But trying to turn this into a question of morality is ruined by Erickson’s own lack of a connection reverence for truth. The truly sad part is that Erickson has expressed dismay concerning Trump and his allies from time to time, so why can’t he be consistent in this dismay and become a NeverTrumper?
Because of Erickson’s addiction to his sides control of power.
