Joe Biden's Parting Insult

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7

u/aLionInSmarch Right Visitor Dec 03 '24

I think the practical consequences are fairly modest but for some reason this has really disappointed me out of proportion to its significance.

A father chooses to sacrifice his integrity to spare the prodigal son from some, perhaps unjust, consequences. Like a moral dilemma that might appear in a mythological or biblical narrative. It just feels like a real fork in the road and a depressing flash of insight into the spiritual state of the nation.

I don’t expect it to get better over the next four years and this just feels like another metaphysical kick in the balls.

6

u/MyUshanka Left Visitor Dec 03 '24

Yeah, I get 100% why he did it. I also get 100% why it was a real bonehead move.

10

u/CheapRelation9695 Right Visitor Dec 02 '24

Biden has seldom possessed the gift of superb timing. The one great exception was his 2020 campaign, when the convergence of a fractious Democratic primary, a self-harming Republican president and a once-in-a-century pandemic vaulted Biden into the White House.

Before that, Biden ran for president repeatedly in years when he was unlikely to succeed and skipped several races he could have won. In 2024, he insisted on waging a doomed campaign for reelection just long enough to discredit the Democrats who closed ranks around him, then left the party with an unprepared presumptive nominee in Kamala Harris.

As president, Biden abandoned his past law-and-order record just in time for a national crime wave that Republicans used against him. He shed his Obama-era hesitations about pursuing titanic social policy to chase Rooseveltian greatness during an inflation crisis. He spent his first year as president agonizing over internal party politics just long enough to hand Republicans the governorship of Virginia, before abruptly moving to pass a popular infrastructure law that was stalled by Democratic infighting.

Now, Biden is exiting a presidency that he insisted was about saving democracy by delivering an ostentatious vote of no confidence in the institutions that his successor most obviously intends to attack.

There is poor timing and then there is this.

This is the best part of the whole article. Biden has been a master at misreading the room for his entire presidency, and he is responsible for so many of the problems facing the Dems right now. This is just the latest, and probably last, incident of that.

31

u/flugenblar Left Visitor Dec 02 '24

Anybody who reacts to Biden's pardoning today in revulsion has conveniently ignored the corrupt and immoral behavior from the Trump side of the aisle. I know I would not want my son to rot in jail, given how prosecutions and charges have all disappeared for Trump. At this point, there is no longer any merit in sticking to your word or holding the torch for integrity. When people reflect back on 2024 and all of the injustices that occurred due to politics, this one act will not stand out.

My hope is that everyone tires of these charades and keeps their noses to grindstone and goes about their civic duties honorably and morally. I still want that, and it's not Joe Biden that I am worrying about.

-17

u/TheDemonicEmperor Social Conservative Dec 02 '24

Anybody who reacts to Biden's pardoning today in revulsion has conveniently ignored the corrupt and immoral behavior from the Trump side of the aisle.

Yeah, you can get off your moral high horse now. The president of your party has pardoned his own son for a blanket amount of time.

The fact is that the voters knew the whole "no one is above the law" schtick from Democrats was fake and this proves it. Thanks for playing, but nobody is buying this anymore.

You can't play the faux outrage when your own president set the precedent for such a corrupt pardon. Reminder that it wasn't Trump who pardoned his son or even pardoned himself. So maybe people on the left ought to be sitting this one out.

26

u/Stoicza Left Visitor Dec 02 '24

You can't play the faux outrage when your own president set the precedent for such a corrupt pardon. Reminder that it wasn't Trump who pardoned his son.

Come on now. Trump set the precedent for corrupt pardons. Were you not paying attention when he pardoned a bunch of Loyalists and his Son-in-Law's father? I mean, the articles are everywhere as we speak because Biden's one Pardon is a clear mirror to Trump's Pardon(s). If you need a reminder, he pardoned:

Charles Kushner, Son-in-Law's father.

Steve Bannon, Loyalist.

Paul Manafort, Loyalist.

Roger Stone, Loyalist.

Michael Flynn, Loyalist.

None of these Pardons were excusable, Biden's included.

8

u/krypticus Left Visitor Dec 02 '24

So I honestly believe he wouldn’t have pardoned Hunter had Kamala won.

If you see it from Biden’s viewpoint, leaving Hunter’s incarceration to Trump’s DOJ and Bureau of Prisons would be a potential nightmare for Hunter. Trump has said and done everything possible to signal that he would go out of his way to punish any and all political enemies.

Depending on which sycophants get put into those positions of power, Trump would more than certainly mess with Hunter’s parole hearings, work on putting him in solitary confinement, or moving him to a more violent prison.

It’s not a stretch to think Trump wouldn’t try to exact revenge on the ONE person that he has actual control over.

5

u/flugenblar Left Visitor Dec 03 '24

Biden’s behavior doesn’t excuse Trump’s behavior. Is that your best pitch that Trump hasn’t done anything wrong?

-2

u/TheDemonicEmperor Social Conservative Dec 03 '24

You'll note I did not mention Trump once. Good to know you have zero standards though.

7

u/bharathbunny Centre-left Dec 02 '24

Honestly, this is probably for the best for the Democrats. They will have to adapt or become irrelevant. The narrow house majority will mean that nothing too crazy will pass the house. They should use this time to find better messaging and leadership for the party. Or they could pick Newsom and repeat this in 2028.

3

u/nosecohn Libertarian Dec 02 '24

Great excerpt. I get the feeling he thinks he's received bad advice from party insiders throughout his career, so he no longer trusts them.

3

u/TheDemonicEmperor Social Conservative Dec 02 '24

so he no longer trusts them.

I mean, would you trust the Obama staffers who went behind your back with Nancy Pelosi to start a campaign to force you out of your re-election campaign?

-5

u/CheapRelation9695 Right Visitor Dec 02 '24

I mean when he gets advice from such luminaries as Hunter Biden, I can see why he wouldn't trust them.

Speaking more seriously now, there's only so much he can do that and expect to get away with that. It sounds more like he can't accept he made some bad choices and is blaming everyone around him for that. At a certain point, the buck stops with him. In some cases, the advice from insiders may have hurt him, but in others I think they had the right idea, and he doesn't like that.