The Reaction to Hunter Biden's Pardon Exemplifies What's Currently Wrong With America

American politics needs to evolve, and too many are resisting

Joe, Jill, and Hunter Biden

It would have been different if America had chosen a different path on Nov. 5, 2024. Instead, America chose to entrust its near future to a man that ran on fascism.

This is very unique in American history. Therefore, these are unique times.

Unique times call for unique measures.

We are either in the middle of, or about to endure, a major crisis. It’s obvious to anyone that is paying attention.

We have the benefit of hindsight, since we’ve been through one term of a Donald Trump presidency. And we’ve been through a Congress of rabidly irrational Republican oppositional government.

We have the benefit of overt statements and actions being emitted by Trump and his acolytes as he transitions into taking power.

It’s not hard to see where America is going.

Therefore, whether or not you agree with the principle of Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, this action is largely insignificant. And, contrary to those that say it damages Joe Biden’s legacy, it will more likely be viewed in history as an understandable move by an outgoing leader during a time of crisis, or at least major turbulence before plummeting into crisis.

There’s probably a lot more Biden could do in the spirit of blocking or slowing an authoritarian takeover of America if he wanted to that would potentially damage his “legacy”. After all, he is currently in power. And the Supreme Court gave him and all future presidents the presumption of immunity in his official acts.

One has to wonder if this pardon might be a precursor to further, more robust, actions he might take, having almost two full months of power remaining.

But he’ll probably refrain. He is a determined institutionalist at a time when institutionalism is basically dead.

But he can at least protect against some of the spectacle that we are going to witness. And that would include further relentless attacks against his family. Despite the conviction of Hunter, Republicans never actually achieved their goal in his persecution, which was to paint him and Joe as complicit in some ambiguous Ukranian corruption conspiracy.

One thing we know about Trump, the MAGA movement, and fascism in general, is that there is usually a relentless campaign to redo history in their favor. That is why there is still talk of prosecuting Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Anthony Fauci. That is why Trump has expressed a desire to investigate (still!!) the 2020 election.

Doesn’t it stand to reason that they will continue to attempt to solidify into the annals of history the “corruption” of the Biden family?

If anything, Hunter Biden’s pardon is Joe Biden’s most obvious example of accepting the reality of today’s American politics.

I don’t like it. Nobody should like it. In a perfect world, presidents should not pardon family members convicted of crimes. But we are not in a perfect world. Far from it. And American politics today necessitates actions that would have been morally unthinkable a generation ago. By being outraged by this, pundits are exposing their nostalgia for 1990’s moralism, not providing a much-needed intellectual guideline for moving forward into the increasingly authoritarian 21st century.

Essentially, we are in the midst of a fascist takeover of America. Mobilization against this takeover is really the only thing that matters. This means that survival and protection are of the highest order; for all of us, including the Bidens. In fact, especially the Bidens, being currently one of the most prominent families on the national political stage.

This is why the absurd behavior of the media during the election was so abhorrent. The silence and indifference towards Trump’s inane and psychotic statements, and the vociferousness towards Biden’s—and then Harris’—perceived flaws was a model of cognitive dissonance and intellectual disorientation that would have made George Orwell blush.

The media and its adjacent punditry, long thought of as an active participant in, and a protector of, a democracy, proved to be an impotent cog in its own machine that simply churns out news cycles for constant consumption. The one thing during the election that actually mattered—America’s potential descent into fascism—was rarely addressed. If it ever was hinted at by a news anchor or host, the fascist guest and their followers would so vehemently shout down the sentiment so as to eventually remove it from the discussion.

Now we have people like Nate Silver, who are so outraged by the Biden pardon that he’s doing New York Times Pitchbot’s satirical work for him (“I’m a Democrat, but if these Democrats don’t stop making me so angry, I’ll be forced to vote for Trump a seventh time!!”). He’s trying to convince you that moral outrage toward Biden is highly appropriate, despite being faced with the more urgent problem of the moral repugnancy of the party that is about to take power.

No, it apparently is going to take a crisis of monumental proportions to mobilize folks into a common cause of restoring America to its basic roots of life and liberty for all.

And this is what’s wrong with America right now. The time for moralistic high ground is over. The time to be seen as being “right” is over. It was fun to play these games in the 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s. But game time is over. It’s time to put the big boy and girl pants on.

The fact is, Trump ran as a fascist, and won with a fascistic platform. It was one of—if not the most—outrageous campaigns ever witnessed. It had no business winning in an America serious about its success and survival.

But it did win, partly due to voters that felt the need to punish Democrats for one thing or another; for some perceived offense, some perceived fatal flaw. Many people either voted for Trump, another alternative candidate, or stayed home. Even some who voted for Harris, did so begrudgingly, while issuing antagonizing and demoralizing edicts from their soapboxes (like Silver).

America had a moment—a missed opportunity—to come together and strike a blow to Trumpist/MAGA fascism and failed. The singular purpose of anyone not associated with this movement needs to be to reverse this trend.

Sure, you can have your own thoughts and opinions and maintain a basic set of morals separate from the Democratic Party. But if the goal is to defeat authoritarianism and stop fascism in its tracks, then the moral equivalency needs to be tempered, and the amount of time and energy spent being outraged by anything other than the fascism staring us in the face needs to be greatly reduced.

We’re in a new era, hopefully a short-lived one. But to keep it short, we need to use our time and efforts wisely. And this means staying laser focused on the ultimate goal, which should be keeping America as a thriving place of opportunity, where differences are settled with peaceful elections that we all accept as legitimate.

And this means staring down the fascists, not the ones opposing them.