BRENDAN O’NEILL: Hunter Biden’s pardon is the death rattle of the elites.
Look, we don’t have to be heartless bastards about it. Many among us would opt to save a child* from jail, even if it meant backtracking on all our fine moral grandstanding. But the problem is the Dems tied their political rectitude to Biden’s acceptance of the jury’s democratic deliberations. They used the Hunter case to morally distinguish themselves from the allegedly lawless bruisers of the Trump set. They swore, endlessly, that they would abide by the rules and restore normalcy to the Trump-rattled republic. And they didn’t. They ended up exploiting presidential power for personal favour to a degree Trump never did. Their claims to moral distinction lie in tatters. Their delusion of righteousness stands exposed as just that: a delusion. This is why this pardon matters.
It feels like a Last Days of Rome vibe has gripped Biden’s White House. One envisions Jill still stomping the halls in fury over Kamala’s betrayal. And officials muttering bitterly about Nancy Pelosi’s Brutus-style wielding of the knife against Joe. All while Joe busies himself with freeing his fallen son from the very justice Joe claims to love. This is what happens when an elite becomes ever more estranged from the people: it starts to rule by itself and for itself. Rarely has the moral exhaustion of a government been on such frank and grim display.
* Hunter is 54, so he’s hardly a child. And Biden’s been looking the other way at his actions for his entire life, leading up to this moment:
On the other hand, Hunter spent his childhood being a political prop for Joe; from that point of view, like the misguided kids of Hollywood celebrities, where there’s no moral compass to be handed down from generation to generation, I am somewhat sympathetic:
That’s the crash that Biden has spent much of his adult life lying about the cause of: ‘Sick To My Stomach:’ Joe Biden lied about my dad being drunk in crash that killed his wife and daughter… he’s got a nerve calling out Trump.