It's All Right

 

President Biden has announced that he is issuing a pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, and for one thing--good. 

Although he had previously said he wasn't going to, I rather hoped he would and am not one bit disappointed. If the power of the pardon is supposed to be for the sake of mercy--why not one's own son? Is his son less deserving by virtue of blood? And if the father seriously believes that the son was persecuted and prosecuted for his political sake, is that not something he can at least do for him?

Some are calling it an "abuse of power." A pardon is an official act. I don't even understand what that argument is supposed to mean. Is he gaining something other than his son not being further punished? 

Is it a norm? Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother, Roger. George H. W. Bush granted clemency to his son. Neil. Trump pardoned his daughter's father-in-law, Charles Kushner, and has now appointed him to an ambassadorship. You tell me: what is a norm, here? 

If someone wants to say it enrages MAGAs, again: good. They can bite their My Pillows in rage. They are outraged by things all the time. It's what they do. I don't care.

You can tell me Trump will use it to justify...(name any potential abuse of power).

Whatever. He can justify anything he wants to. He was always going to do whatever it was he was going to do, and whether Biden pardons his son isn't the thing that gives him cover. The press already does that just fine. Biden's pardoning of his son doesn't go back in time to justify any corrupt pay to play pardons Trump may have made. Trump pardoned war criminals like Eddie Gallagher. He pardoned Joe Arpaio who ran a migrant camp. He pardoned Bannon, Flynn, Manafort and Stone. 

He was always going to pardon the 1/6 felons. He said so.

This country elected a felon, and the felon wants to fire the FBI Director and put his very own goon in charge. Are we supposed to act like this is normal?  If someone is mad that Biden said he wasn't going to pardon his son and now here he is, doing just that, well, here's what you can do about that: the next office Joe Biden runs for, you just don't vote for him, then. Or just stay mad--I don't care. 

I'm seeing the "objective" media and the Never-Trump brigade of Reform Conservatives tsk-tsk this action "more in sorrow than in anger". So disappointed. Very moral. "Oh noes, Democrats are supposed to be better than this." My response to that is simple: get fucked. When does anyone say Republicans should be better than this and then follow through and actually expect it? Never? Well, we watched Trump march through two impeachments without being convicted, through 1/6 and stealing classified documents, and a whole fucking election where his being an adjudicated sex offender and a felon did not mean one damn thing so for this to set anyone off?

For this? Drop it. If we were playing a game where all things were equal, I'd give it to them, but not here and not now. If you don't know that MAGA wants blood, envisioning paybacks and persecutions of various Democrat-allied figures and don't see why Biden is protecting his own here: you are missing the plot. Maybe these folks never were that good at reading a room. 

I also hope there are more pardons where that one came from. And maybe that won't prevent Trump's DOJ from still trying to take people down for political and personal reasons. Get back to me then. 

Joe Biden cares about his son's welfare. He didn't want to break away from any norm or abuse power, but the situation is what it is. That's the only takeaway I've got.