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The current definition of a Democrat is someone who plays nice—by the rules—regardless of the bully kicking sand in his, her or their face.
This should have changed long ago—long before President Joe Biden's own family became a victim of Democratic timidity.
Put pardons aside for a minute and imagine what the Democrats could have accomplished when they held control of all three branches of government. If they'd had the courage to remove the filibuster, women would still have access to abortion in all 50 states; no one would be without health care; college would be more affordable; and our world would be a cleaner, cooler place.
But no! Today's Democrats continued to play by rules that the Republicans have long left behind.
Taking away the filibuster in the Senate (which allows a minority to block the will of the majority through procedural hocus pocus), was once called "The Nuclear Option®." The fear was that if the Democrats changed the rules today, the Republicans would surely do the same tomorrow and The End would come.
Finally, with the number of vacancies on the federal bench reaching epic status, the filibuster was removed, but solely in the case of confirming judges.
Lo and behold! The bench started to fill.
A Washington Miracle!
On everything else, the filibuster has held. But will it in the next Congress, controlled by Republicans, many of whom live on MAGA's bleeding edge? Will mere procedure—not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution—hold back a national ban on abortion? Will it even be enough to block President-elect Donald Trump's cronies from creating a law forcing all Democrats to wear red clown noses so that they're more easily identified and discriminated against?
No.
Today's Republican Party isn't much on the rule of law—or the value of precedent—unless either suits them.
This brings us to Joe Biden and his decision to pardon his beloved son, Hunter. Republicans, who have been hounding a guy who's clearly more troubled than trouble for years, are outraged that Biden pardoned his son.
Of course they are.
If Biden does it, Republicans hate it. Justice—or injustice—don't matter at all.
What I find far more troubling are the many, many Democrats who are OUTRAGED by this decision. Outraged that the president, who has lost children to horrifying accident and terrible disease, will go to any length to protect the son who is left to him.
Hunter is a sinner, certainly. Sex, drugs, and taxes, for sure. Owning a gun at the wrong time in his life when the rights of prospective murderers to have access to guns is staunchly defended by Republicans in Congress and beyond. Yep. I'll even grant that he's tried to profit off his father's name.
A sinner for sure.
But more so than the great hero of law and order, Donald Trump? A man who is a convict and a known document hoarder? A man on target to federally forgive himself? Hardly.
These Democrats are outraged because Biden said he would never pardon his son, and because Democrats believe they play by the rules, without fear or favor. They smell the whiff of Biden's venal corruption just as the greatest stink ever stunk slinks into the nation's capital.
Biden is "tainting his legacy!" they say.
Biden is making himself look at bad as Trump, they worry.
The New York Times reports that one of the final straws for the president was a realization that a tsunami of unfreedom is bearing down on the United States. That the Republican wave will sweep away all before it, rules, traditions, and norms be damned.
As Biden saw the water rising, he saved what was most precious to him.
The rest of us he is leaving to drown. That includes the men and women in the Justice Department who fought valiantly to jail Trump for numerous crimes. Chief among those crimes? Trying to overthrow our republic on Jan. 6, 2021, in the most half-assed attempt at a coup since Guy Fawkes.
I fear that Biden will be remembered as the last president of the American Republic. The last leader before the Mad King ascended to the throne on a wave of resentment at the world's changing tides.
He'll be remembered as that nice old man who handed over the keys to our freedom in a photo-op held at the White House. The man who smiled and shook hands with Donald Trump, who is planning the destruction of everything Biden had spent a lifetime trying to safeguard.
The fate of Hunter Biden will be less than a footnote.
And if the Democrats don't wake up to the fact that the hoary gentlemanly rules no longer apply, they will be, too.
Jason Fields is a deputy opinion editor at Newsweek.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
