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                           Paul McCartney & Wings, Listen to What the Man Said

When it comes to Hunter Biden or any other citizen, if someone has broken the law, or impinged upon a moral norm, they should be held accountable. Character is important and the importance of individual behavior cannot be understated. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan noted, when we tolerate or turn a blind eye towards deviant behavior, we get more of it (Defining Deviancy Down).  If the American people want to return to a more moral, law-abiding country, they must become more judgmental and willing to define publicly the behaviors which are, and which are not normatively acceptable.

One can reasonably wonder why a party that turned a blind eye for four years is suddenly so interested in the actions of President Biden’s son. The answer is simple: politics.

    Oh yes, indeed we know, That people will find a way to go. No matter what the man said (Paul McCartney)

At the heart of the attention being given to Hunter Biden by conservative media and its sycophantic audience is an attempt to tie President Biden into a narrative of “family corruption.” This all too apparent move towards trying Biden in the court of public opinion is a rather stilted attempt to make a moral equivalency argument between the behavior of Donald Trump and his ilk, and those of Joe Biden.

Are the two men morally equivalent?

Americans love nothing more than to criticize their President. President Truman, arguably the 20^th Century's most successful President stated, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” In other words, as it pertains to the Modern GOP and its attempt to draw a moral equivalency, we probably first need to recognize this for what it is: bare-knuckled politics, a knife fight in a phone booth.

    So don't you listen to what the man said.

Second, we want to look beyond the carefully crafted partisan talking points by asking the rather obvious question: what are the behaviors that are, or are not acceptable, coming out of the Oval Office?

Should we expect a President’s behavior to transcend the standards set for the rest of us? Obviously, the answer is yes.

Since the early 1940s, the American President has had the most powerful bully pulpit in the world. What an American President says, what they do, and how they interact signal American intent to the rest of the world. It is a signal indicative of a nation that political conservatives will argue is a beacon of freedom emanating from a shining city on the hill broadcasting American Exceptionalism throughout the globe.

    Soldier boy kisses girl. Leaves behind a tragic world.

When Trump lost the popular election in 2020, an election which has been repeatedly upheld by the American court system, as well as all 50 states, and affirmed by Constitutional standards in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College, members of the Modern GOP, as opposed to traditional and more reasonable Republicans, continue to attack the very foundation of American self-governance by undermining our trust and faith in elections. There is no greater assault on our self-governance model than the corrosive effects of destroying the institutions on which our nation stands. 

    The wonder of it all, baby
    The wonder of it all, baby

In the end, Hunter Biden should and needs to be held accountable to the laws of our nation. However, this issue, as a national story, packaged with political aplomb, is merely a cascade of repeated mantras that gives feel good harbor to a rudderless political movement:  a wishful means to an end in which Modern Republicans hope to wash away and divert attention from the sin of excusing the inexcusable.