Intolerance on the right for freedom of discussion, part one

I cannot tell you how immensely frustrated I am by this post over at RedState. Writes Erick Erickson:

Today, [Culture11 is] pushing a piece hard on why conservative leaders should get Sarah Palin to resign. The day before the debate, this is their story. Surely they just want attention.

I’m happy to let Katleen Parker, etc. say what they want. Some people are on the team. Some people are not on the team. Some people want you to know they are conservatives first and Republicans second and by God let me pee on the GOP just so you know how far apart I am even if I play willingly into an unfair media narrative against Sarah Palin. …

This may just be one of their writers, but it’s the top story on their website. And who is the writer? Some guy named Conor Friedersdorf. That’s right. A Huffington Post writer writing at Culture 11 wants to make a case for conservative leaders to get Palin to go. As if we’d take this guy seriously.

Thankfully Joe Carter has a brilliant take down of the guy. I’d link to Joe, but then I’d have to link to Culture 11 and I’m not going to do that.

Conor can defend himself, and Ross has weighed in as well. After spending months documenting the left’s intolerance for freedom of political discussion, I’m vexed to see it pop up on the right.

For the record: I disagree with Conor, being of the mind that Palin is getting a bad rap from the media and will do much, much better in the debate tonight. But there’s no denying the fact that she has also been strikingly awful on these television interviews, and simply sweeping that fact under the rug because you really dig her personally doesn’t do anyone on the right any good. I get that Erick’s a partisan, and he’s more interested in Republican electoral success/defending the GOP at all costs than being an honest commentator. I understand his motivation at blacklisting conservatives who dare to disagree with him. But I refuse to condone it, and I refuse to sit idly by while Erickson dishonestly trashes one of the smartest young conservatives out there because he fails a party purity test. Let’s leave that sort of nonsense to the Kossacks and the Chomskys and the Obamas of the world. I won’t have any part of it on the right, and neither should you.