A Pardoned Son
After many months of refusing to entertain the thought of pardoning his son and after dozens of denials and emphatic rejections by him and his press secretary, President Biden has abruptly changed course and issued a pretty sweeping pardon for his son, Hunter. He argues that Hunter Biden, a private citizen, was unfairly targeted by prosecutors for the sole reason that he was the President’s son. Looking at the facts of Hunter’s case, it is hard to argue against the idea that if Hunter Biden were literally anyone else, his violations would have been treated much differently.
We’ve all watched for a year as Republicans have tried to dig up dirt on Biden and the “Biden crime family.” From the inane hysteria over Hunter Biden’s laptop to the fruitless impeachment inquiries, Republicans made every effort to pin something on the President. But after repeated failures, they ultimately decided to substitute President Biden’s mess of a son in for Joe Biden, making Hunter the new target, all in the name of throwing red meat to a rabid base whose sole reason for existence is to torture liberals.
I think many, including myself, thought Biden would wade into the sunset as a caretaker president not doing anything of note for the final few weeks of his presidency, clinging to norms and crumbling institutions, willing to let his son go to jail in the name of some vague notion of trust in a system that is broken. Many are shocked by this sudden about-face from the President. This move is generally surprising, not only because it’s in direct contradiction from what Biden had said he would do mere days ago but also it comes from a man with a political career steeped in institutionalism. To say there were plenty of clutched pearls is an understatement. Nevertheless, I applaud Joe Biden for taking this step.
I applaud him not because I have a particularly strong affinity for Hunter, beyond the fact that it’s clear Joe Biden loves his sole surviving son deeply. Hunter is a wreck. No one can argue with that. Some of the reasons for this are valid, and some aren’t so much. He has been a problem child for a while, and to his credit, seems to be on the mend and genuinely working to better himself. Besides this being a relatable story for many, though, the family dynamic at play isn’t the point.
The point is that here is an example of a Democrat bucking norms and empty platitudes in favor of protecting their own and sticking it to the other side when they are being absurd. We need more of this. Whatever the next incarnation of the Democratic party is, we need more fighters, more people willing to “own the cons.” We need people who are actually willing to use every single tool at the government’s disposal to effect the change we want and prevent anyone from getting in our way. Politics is a game and it’s become all too clear that Democrats are playing with one hand tied behind our back.
There are methods available to us if only we are willing to use them.
And I know many columnists and Democrats will whine and complain about the sanctity of the justice system and the fact that this plays into Trump’s rhetoric about how the system is rigged. Well, I hate to break it to all those learned pundits and politicians but many Americans agree with Trump, and if we’re honest, there is some truth to the claim.
If the justice system wasn’t rigged, all of Trump’s many court cases would still be in full force instead of having evaporated into thin air due to some bullshit memo at the Justice Department. If the justice system wasn’t rigged, there wouldn’t be thousands of people still locked up on cannabis-related offenses despite the drug now being legal in dozens of states across the country. If the justice system wasn’t rigged, the death penalty would be abolished. I could go on.
Democrats, we don’t need the people who whine and complain and write articles about how Democrats are destroying norms and institutions. These people are just professional complainers and contrarians. Nothing more. Our norms and institutions have been dead for a long time now. Biden was right to do this. It’s quite telling the number of people who are more aggrieved at Biden for this than the dozens of felonies that just got wiped clean from Trump’s plate.
The truth is that there is plenty to criticize when it comes to how criminal justice is meted out in this country. Every day Americans see and feel that. The Democrats sound delusional when they make these sweeping pronouncements about how we must have faith in these objectively unpopular institutions. We need to be the party of reform and change, and we need to be aggressive about using every tool we have to make that a reality. The status quo should be considered indefensible.