By Lance Simmens
As a father of two sons, I have nothing but the upmost respect and sympathy for President Joe Biden as he struggles with the travails that have beset him and his family with regard to his son Hunter’s recent guilty verdict. It is surely a parent’s worst nightmare when a child finds himself in a very serious legal predicament that breaks the heart of those who truly love him/her.
Of course the first immediate response of the parent is to explore avenues through the legal system to minimize or even make the allegations and the accompanying incarceration disappear. And can anyone deny that the inclination to intervene would generate enormous exploration and expenditure of alternatives to lessen or even eliminate what is truly viewed as a harsh punishment if found guilty of violating the law?
No doubt the recent conviction of Hunter Biden would offer the president at least a considered option to exert his position as the most powerful leader in the world. After all, this is a most personal crisis and the love of a son or daughter surely must have tempted the president to at least probe the opportunities to lessen the alternatives and the penalty.
But President Biden has weighed in on what is surely a matter of leadership and dignity by eliminating what would be the most dramatic and drastic resolve to this issue. By publicly refusing to grant a pardon and to abide by the prosecutor’s decision, the judge’s decisions, and ultimately that unique functionary representing true democracy: namely, the jurors, he has shown the nation and the world that it would represent the ultimate hypocrisy to interject his prodigious powers to manipulate the judicial system.
One is assured that this was a painful but necessary position to take in order to avoid appearing as though some in society are actually above the law. Of course we all are aware of instances where the amount of power and/or money or political connections helps many who find themselves in such an advantageous position where they can actually beat the system and therefore buy their way out of conviction. In a world where suspicions run rampant with respect to corruption and crooked decisions happen to find their way through what is for most of the public a star too far to reach, how many of us would not hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity to game the system?
In a most bizarre consequence confronting our political environment we at the same time find ourselves struggling with another landmark decision in the conviction of former President Donald Trump in a unanimous decision on 34 felony counts. Hence, we are now facing another dilemma where his current status as a convicted felon will most certainly complicate his position as the presumptive presidential nominee for the Republican Party in the upcoming election.
Here, however, accountability is not in order. The nominee has expressed outrage, threats against court officials, the judge, witnesses, and jurors. He has violated at least 10 gag orders where either fines, incarceration, or both show that he has little remorse or even acknowledgement that the judicial system is an acceptable system for truth, justice, and the American way. The Trump strategy has been to delay, delay, and delay at least three additional instances where state and federal violations of law could both be heard and adjudicated under the same conditions that beyond reasonable doubt be established and a unanimous jury vote for conviction also be found.
That these two instances should arise at the same time and that they should find their way into the middle of a presidential election only complicates the matter considerably. However, the degree to which both candidates have handled their respective positions with regard to how they impact the American public is a definitively important consideration before citizens cast their votes this coming Fall.
President Joe Biden has not made his position, regardless of the pain and suffering it might cause, contingent upon whether he will only accept not guilty as an appropriate verdict. Former President Donald Trump has made it clear that the system must be rigged, even prior to a verdict, and that he would only accept innocence. His reluctance and his venom with respect to our judicial system has led him to declaring that, if he is elected, he would eviscerate a legal component of our governmental system as part of a larger attack upon the “deep administrative state” that has oddly taken upon itself to represent a fascist attack upon treasured democratic precepts contained in the U.S. Constitution.
As I have spoken in this column before, the notion “No one is above the law” is a valued concept that ensures our adherence to a democratic experiment that has withstood nearly 250 years. We must all agree that it is as solid today as it was when the founders met in Philadelphia to chart the course for what has been the envy of the world. We must insist that all parties play by the rules in order to maintain trust in our leaders or the system will crumble.