As We Wrap Up 2024...

My thoughts on some end-of-the-year political happenings.

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Like many of you, I’ve been busy with things other than politics over the holiday season, but since it’s been a couple weeks, I figured I’d check in once more before the end of the year with a few thoughts on some recent political happenings.

Here we go…

---

Biden’s Cognitive Decline Was Known of Earlier Than Believed

Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal published a report detailing concerning accounts of Joe Biden’s mental lapses beginning not years but rather months into his presidency… and how members of his administration kept his condition hidden.

Access to the president was very limited, information was selectively withheld from him, and his schedule was cut way back to accommodate his worsening status. People outside of Biden’s inner circle, who publicly questioned the president’s health, were shamed by the White House and even by some in the media.

The whitewashing continued (along with Biden’s decline) into 2024, with the disastrous presidential debate on June 27 confirming what polls showed most Americans (including most Democrats) already recognized: Biden wasn’t all there.

Yes, the public had it right, but the fact that regular folks were equipped with little more than anecdotal observations from which to make that determination is nothing short of a scandal. An honorable president would have never put his team and his country in that position, an honorable team would have never gone along with the sham, and a responsible news-media would have been diligent in digging into the matter much earlier.

I’ve long argued that Biden should have announced after the 2022 midterms that he wasn’t running for reelection, but I think it’s increasingly clear that he also should have stepped down from the presidency. It would have been the proper and patriotic thing to do — a dutiful act of putting the country before his ego and affording his party a conventional primary. It would have even resulted in our nation’s first female president — an added benefit to Biden’s historical legacy.

Instead, he handed the White House right back to Donald Trump, the guy he had made it his mission to send packing four years earlier.

The House Ethics Report on Matt Gaetz

With the release last week of the House Ethics report on former congressman Matt Gaetz, we learned of “substantial evidence” that Donald Trump’s first choice of attorney general “violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”

I’d ask when he had time to actually legislate, but Gaetz never had much of an interest in that. Like many House Republicans, his top priority was getting on television and throwing political bombs. He was very good at it, and he apparently still is. After resigning from Congress, and being pressured out of AG contention, Gaetz landed a cable-news hosting gig on One America News Network (OANN), where he’ll continue to preach the Gospel of MAGA.

I’m glad that Gaetz is no longer in public office, but it’s worth noting that even though his former GOP colleagues disliked him enough to achieve his ouster, he remains a revered figure among the Republican base, Republican influencers, and even the leader of the Republican Party (who, again, nominated him to be our nation’s chief law-enforcement officer). There’s even talk of Gaetz running for governor of Florida in two years, when Ron DeSantis leaves.

I find that very sad. Once again, it appears that as long as you’re an unconditional Trump loyalist, there is no amount of sleaziness, perversity, or corruption (including strong evidence of having paid a 17 year-old for sex) that will put you in poor standing with today’s Republican Party. Even now, I’m willing to bet that Gaetz is more popular with the Republican base than people like Mitt Romney, Mitch McConnell, and Mike Pence.

Character used to matter to the GOP, but those days appear to be behind us.

More Pardon Controversy

President Biden made waves a few weeks ago when he pardoned his son, Hunter, and offered a dishonest explanation for why. He created additional controversy last week when he commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 federal prisoners on death row. It was a sweeping, political act of opposition against capital punishment in our country.

I too oppose the death penalty, but this wasn’t the way to go about it. The right way would have been to focus on criminal law. What Biden did was sidestep the law, with little regard to the extent of the crimes, the families of the victims, and whether or not there was a miscarriage of justice in the original sentencing.

I’ve never liked the idea of presidents having unilateral authority to issue pardons or commutations. Such power is easy to abuse, which is what I believe happened here.

No Longer Taking the Peaceful Transfer of Power for Granted

Up until Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election, and provoked the January 6 insurrection, I didn’t think a whole lot about the peaceful transfer of power in the United States. It’s not that I didn’t recognize its importance and uniqueness. I just kind of assumed it would always be afforded by departing presidents.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

For all of the Biden administration’s flaws (and there are many), they’ve granted to the incoming Trump administration what the president-elect shamefully and unapologetically denied our country of four years ago. Biden and Harris quickly accepted their party’s November defeat, and have since gone out of their way to extend cordiality and transitional assistance to the incoming president and his team.

So, when I read sentiments like this, it kind of bugs me:

Yes, Harris will do what Mike Pence rightfully did last time… against Donald Trump’s wishes and ultimately at the threat of violence. This stuff isn’t a punchline. It’s a basic Constitutional duty that we can unfortunately no longer take for granted.

It would be great if more Americans recognized that.

---

Thank you. I hope you all have a Happy New Year, and if I get a couple hours in the next few days, I’ll carry on my New Year’s Predictions piece tradition. Stay tuned. 😉