New Situation, New Rules

On some level, Hunter Biden’s pardon is not about him.

Personally, I think Hunter has hurt a lot of people through his actions. Addiction may be an illness, but it is not a license to dodge responsibility for your actions.

Although I think Hunter is a much better person than any of the Trump family members and is certainly a better man than any Republican official around today, that is not a high bar to clear.

Hunter seems genuinely to have changed and cleaned up his act. He deserves credit for that. But that does not mean he gets to dodge making amends for the damage he inflicted.

However, Hunter the man is less at play for me than one salient fact.

What is left of the old norms is gone.

President Biden played by the rules for four years after 2020. He hand-held Republicans and tried to work with them on productive legislation. He accommodated different wings of the party in the name of working together.

Under President Biden, America was rebuilding and regaining strength. Long-term problems were getting tackled. We had the best economic recovery out of all the major economies from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Look at people’s behavior, receipts, and data—not people’s feelings—for reliable economic indicators.

It has cost President Biden dearly.

I am not interested in norms that leave blue America helpless to defend itself against the savages of red America.

I am not interested in hearing about norms and promises from people who supported a president-elect who has broken every norm in American politics and whose word is less than worthless.

If you start a fight, don’t complain when you get hit.

A plurality of Americans, if I am being generous, failed to do very basic research about what Trump’s policies would mean for their wallets or their preferred policies. Or even worse than that, they voted for Trump to lash out at someone.

Regardless of motive, these voters don’t care about norms and abuses of power. The possibility of Trump returning to power was clearly not enough to get many nonvoters to vote. And many Trump voters did not consider actual felonies to be a dealbreaker—much worse than anything Hunter was convicted of.

It’s one thing not to vote because of accessibility issues or because you legally cannot. It’s another thing entirely not to vote out of apathy or the false belief that both parties are the same.

I did learn from President Biden’s mistakes of trusting the inherent goodness of his fellow Americans, especially his fellow Democrats.

From now on, any support I give to any Democrat beyond voting is not only conditional but on a strictly pragmatic basis.

For example, I don’t trust California Governor Gavin Newsom one bit, and I consider him unreliable at best. That being said, I can also see that he is taking actual steps to prepare his state for war with the Trump administration and that he is excellent on TV. Ergo, I would advocate having him lead the early resistance to Trump in the first months of 2025.

Newsom may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.

If anyone has another candidate in mind, please let me know in the comments.

For what it’s worth, I think Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler is the next best choice to lead the DNC because of all the candidates running, he has the best record.

Quite a few Democrats need to be primaried in 2026: mainly what is left of the Squad and other far-left Democrats. If you have any others who need to go in safe blue seats, let me know in the comments.

Otherwise, I am taking my support for Democrats on a case-by-case basis.

A test many Democrats will pass. Many others will fail.

I don’t want to hear a thing about norms and promises from anyone. Those norms were useless at keeping us all safe.

Being smart is different from pulling your punches. For example, you will recall I have advised you all not to go on any marches and to let Trump have his way up to a point.

Keep in mind I am not comfortable primarying Blue Dog Democrats in tough seats. I am looking to see that safe seats are cleaned up.

Reforge the Democrats; destroy the traitors.

We are in a new world now.