Friday, July 17, 2020

Getting on the Record About A Biden Presidency

As we approach the November election with Donald Trump's re-election increasingly looking improbable, I want to take this opportunity to get a few thoughts into the record. This effort is mainly aimed at providing an easy, go-to hyperlink that I (and you!) can insert into other social media when, after I invariably criticize the Biden Administration, some wag decides to come out from under his or her Trumpy rock to remind me that "I own this" because I voted Biden. 

My vote for Joe Biden is as much a vote against Donald Trump. Trump's unique blend of corruption, pathology, and malevolence would ordinarily be enough to justify voting against him, but foremost in my decision is the degree to which he has threatened the Constitutional order. He has at various times, advocated for  unconstitutional limits on speech, the press, and peaceable assembly. His attempt to re-allocate execution year budget resources from the Department of Defense to construction of a border wall violates separation of powers and the Article I prerogatives of Congress. Additionally, his early attempts to prohibit the entry of Muslims into the United States violated the 14th Amendment. Whatever disagreements I have with Joe Biden's policy positions, I do not see him as a threat to the basic constitutional order.

So in voting for Joe Biden as a measure against anti-constitutionalism, am I voting for Joe Biden's policy positions and preferences? Assuredly not. First, there is the whole issue of what electing someone means. Biden's ascension to the Oval Office will not mean that every policy he ran on accompanies him into authority. More to the point, his election is the FIRST move in the process of policy becoming legislation, and my voice--along with millions of others--in opposition to those policies can have the benefit of shaping them into more acceptable proposals or creating additional opposition to truly damaging ideas. 

Second, I am, and have remained, a conservative even as the GOP turned toward personality-based populism. I will continue to resist government encroachment on individual liberty (including religious liberty), federal accretion of powers and authorities properly allocated to the States or society, and expansion of the welfare state. I will resist isolationism and protectionism. I will advocate for a strong military as one of the tools of national power. 

So, if a President Biden puts forward any of a number of proposals that he has floated on the campaign trail, I will use this platform and others to bring attention to their unsuitability or their lack of wisdom, and when the Trumpenproletariat suggests my fault in it, I'll just link to this post. 




2 comments:

Jonathan Marcantel said...

As I've said since the winter of 2017, "We have to save the Country first. Then, and only then, can Liberals and Conservatives go back to fighting over taxes and other things that make no difference if our Constitution no longer exists."

The current occupant of the Oval Office is not a Republican, he is not a Conservative, he is not a Democrat, nor is he a Liberal. He is a wannabe authoritarian dictator.

Both Democrats and Conservatives (the wholesale trumpification of the Republican Party renders me unable to call Conservatives Republicans at this point) have one overreaching goal: to see the United States better achieve its founding principles. Yes, we have different ideas of how to get there, but we are united in purpose.

A second term for Trump means only one thing: the wholesale destruction of small "d" democratic norms, our Constitution, and our great Democratic Republic.

Eric Toulon said...

It was reported in 2011 that Trump sent a team of investigators to Hawaii and while he didn't say what they found out he did say they found out a lot, and that it would come out at the appropriate time. Based upon who he attacked and with what vitriol I suspected that he had. Throughout my life I've paid close attention to the machine headed by the late Senator Dan Inouye however in 2008, I started paying even closer attention. That's when I found out how blatantly corrupt the machine was. If you go to www (dot) conartistskauai (dot) info it will show you the Hawaii political machine along with the gang of fourteen both headed by Inouye and their influence in the Clinton White House. This was around the time the law changes allegedly responsible for the accounting scandal were coming about. As well as the law changes and repeals that would eventually bring about the banking collapse. What happened was so blatant and blue collar my book that I started in 2004, would become a satire. Originally my book was about Kauai's economic collapse following Hurricane Iniki that struck the island on 9/11/1992. With time it would evolve into how the same people who successfully subverted Kauai's economy would attempt to do the same thing to the national economy, when in the middle of it all, planes flew into buildings.

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