that line might be suitable for, say, real time with bill maher but not the so-called tiffany network which used to be the programming gold standard. first, it was crass and in bad taste, quite a departure for the sunday school teaching colbert and a far cry from the democratic campaign mantra, when they go low, we go high. second, it s foolish politics. on president obama s watch, the right lost credibility with all but themselves, when they allowed their discomfort with president obama s background to devolve into charges of birtherism. or they cried socialism about obamacare. intolerance has a way of catching up with you politically and colbert is not the only recent example. student marauders stopped charles murray at middlebury. ann coulter had to cancel. at birk le, elevating the bombastic nuisance into a martyr. some wants new york times to fire bret stevens.
he there was a times column under the headline, climate of complete certainty. stevens used the example of hillary clinton s failed campaign to show that such certainty can lead to hubris. while not denying climate change nor human role in it, he nevertheless set that while climate science is scrupulous, that s not always the case with its boosters. the column sparked a hue and cry, and some subscription cancellations. which i find ridiculous. or consider the democratic taunts of gop members who voted to repeal obamacare on thursday. na, na, hey, hey, good-bye my cnn colleague chris lizza was right to say that this kind of jeering and mocking is exactly why people hate politics. look, the left is understandably fired up, but there s only one beneficiary in a climate of liberal intolerance, and that s donald trump. he s helped when he is no longer the bad behaving outlier but the norm in a political atmosphere run amok.