So quite the hullabaloo over Joe’s pardon of Hunter. And I get it, I guess. He said he wouldn’t. Then he did. Not a good look.
But I find it hard to get worked up over it.
First off, the fake outrage on the right is comical. They’re swinging open the door to the tiger cage while throwing a tantrum over the neighbors who didn’t declaw their cat.
But liberals, well, they’re on the Titanic shouting angrily at the folks who broke into the wine cellar. Your ship is going down folks. Let the boys have a drink.
I don’t begrudge Biden one last feel-good moment before he has to watch his life’s work destroyed. As final meals go, it’s not much to ask. Biden resurrected the nation from the shambles left by Trump. He restored dignity to the office. He restored respect to the nation. He had the kind of achievements in a ridiculously hostile political atmosphere that will leave him ranked in the top 15 of all our presidents. And the nation thanked him by handing the reins back to the clown.
The nation chose the worst president in our history. I’d put family before such a nation too.
This notion that Biden has somehow gifted Trump and his gang of thugs the permission to tiptoe beyond the norms. Oh no, now Trump has an excuse to break the law. Please. The man campaigned on ending the rule of law in this country for god’s sake. In four years very few “norms” will exist as anything other than a fond memory. Our democracy now is simply a raw struggle for power, and Democrats had better get on board with that.
And then there’s the argument that Biden somehow “further eroded Americans’ faith in their justice system,” as Democratic senator Michael Bennet argued. Or Biden is ruining Americans’ faith in their democracy.
First off, who are these “Americans” of whom you speak? He hasn’t changed my thinking about our justice system one iota. Nor has he, I suspect, changed yours. Why? Because we’re educated individuals who are capable of taking in multiple sources of information and deciding for ourselves when our justice system is being used wisely and when it’s being exploited. We’re quite capable of holding multiple opinions about a justice system that operates in different ways at different times under different leaders, flawed, criminal, and otherwise.
So, Bennet must be speaking about that other America, MAGA America. It’s their faith in American justice that is being eroded. Seriously?! MAGA America long ago gave up the privilege of independent thinking on such things. If Trump and Fox say the justice system is rigged, it’s rigged. When Trump and Fox decide the justice system is working fine, it’ll be working fine.
When Trump says elections are rigged, they’re rigged. When Trump wins and says the election was fine, it was fine. It’s similar to how fast opinions on our economy will change as Trump assumes office. Hell, we’re already seeing MAGA Americans delighting in how much better the economy is. If Trump says the economy is strong, they’ll pay an extra dollar for gas and smile doing it. Awesome how those tariffs have fixed things up just right!
For it or against it, I doubt a single American has suddenly said, “What a dastardly thing Biden did pardoning his son! Hell, Margaret, I think justice is broken in this country.”
The hard truth is that Democrats, by clinging to decency, the “norms,” hell, the Constitution, are fighting with one hand tied behind their back. Trump is laughing at Biden, the Democrats, and their commitment to norms and the rule of law. Their commitment to decency. Their commitment to good order.
A piece from Rolling Stone over the weekend: “Donald Trump and his incoming administration officials think Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are suckers. They’re not shy about saying it. It hasn’t just been the legal transfer and procedures to which Democrats have committed themselves. Biden has promised to attend Trump’s 2025 inauguration.”
Trump administration official: “Some of us have been laughing about it. [Democrats] spend all this time calling Donald Trump a Nazi and Hitler, and now it’s just: ‘Smile for the camera!’”
“These sentiments of gleefully rejoicing and sneering at, as one close Trump ally puts it, the Democrats’ almost performative ‘capitulation’ to Trump — who campaigned on a grossly authoritarian platform that includes wielding the federal apparatus to exact revenge operations on prominent political enemies — are widely shared in Trumpland, according to four sources close to the president-elect or working on the Trump transition.
“In recent weeks, according to a source familiar with the matter, Trump himself has privately mocked Biden for being so ‘nice’ after Harris lost the election, with the president-elect sarcastically joking that he would have done the same thing for his Democratic opponents.”
A century ago, G. K. Chesterton noted: “If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not being delayed by things that go with good judgment.”
The same is true when you step into the ring with someone without a conscience. Someone with no commitment to, or even understanding of, the norms of human decency. Someone who cares nothing for honor, the good of the nation, indeed, the good of anyone save himself.
You will likely get the worst of it, because all of your storied commitments are dead weights hampering your freedom of movement. In the arena, the gladiator who does not abandon his humanity to become the animal will be devoured by the animal.
It’s why Christian martyrs never provided much entertainment for the masses. They clung to their norms in the mouth of the lion. The lions likely had a good chuckle at how they smiled for the cameras all the way down.
Now, perhaps, and I’m willing to concede that this may be the case, perhaps it’s worth it, in the long run, to cling to principle while the lion finishes his meal. Perhaps, decades or centuries from now, Americans will look at our history and say, “You know what. Those people were right. The norms, decency, their founding principles were worth dying for. Their refusal to engage on the lion’s terms was admirable. Let us follow their example and build an honorable nation once again.”
Perhaps that will be the case. Whether any of us will be around to see it, however, remains an open question …