[Salon] NY Post: Biden wants to defend democracy by making sure you can’t vote for Trump

[Jim Bovard <jbovard@his.com>]

https://nypost.com/2024/01/05/opinion/biden-wants-to-defend-democracy-by-making-sure-you-cant-vote-for-trump/

New York Post, January 6, 2023
Biden wants to defend democracy by making sure you can’t vote for Trump
by James Bovard

“I understand power,” Biden boasted after finishing his speech to a small Democratic audience near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on Friday. Biden invoked the courage of George Washington’s army in the winter of 1777 to demand that Americans quiver in fear at the prospect of end of his reign.

Biden endlessly reminded viewers that democracy is a “sacred cause.” A weary chant of “four more years” arose, raising suspicions that the campaign event was being held at an old folks’ home.

But the venue sufficed for Biden to exploit a venerable American historical site to castigate anyone who opposed his re-election.

Biden boasted: “We are still a nation that gives hate no safe harbor.” A few minutes before that uplifting assertion, Biden accused Donald Trump of “echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany.”

CNN reported on Tuesday that Biden campaign aides plan to go “full Hitler” on Trump making “a direct comparison to the Nazi leader rather than couching their attacks by saying Trump ‘parroted’ him.” A few weeks ago, the Biden campaign posted a graphic on Twitter comparing Trump and Hitler’s rhetoric.

Biden castigated Trump as the “Election Denier in Chief,” a new offense not yet been codified in the statute book. Biden endlessly warned that Trump posed a deadly threat to both freedom and democracy.

Biden derided conservative activists in his speech, asking, “Ever think you would be at a political event talk about book banning for presidential election?”

But Biden neglected to explain that his vision of democracy did not include freedom of speech for his opponents.

On July 4, Federal Judge Terry Doughty condemned the Biden administration for potentially “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history,” and a federal appeals court condemned Team Biden for “suppressing millions of protected free-speech postings by American citizens” — mostly by conservatives and Republicans.

Biden’s Justice Department is fighting tooth and nail at the Supreme Court to preserve his power to secretly censor anyone the feds claim is spouting disinformation, perhaps including denying that Biden is God’s gift to America.

Biden assured the audience that “we still believe that no one, not even the president, is above the law.” Okay, but what if the president or the vice president uses the names Robert Peters, Robin Ware and JRB Ware as email aliases to hustle business deals for a family member? Is it OK for them to slip the law then?

The only way to assume that Biden is not “above the law” is to assume that his decrees alone are THE LAW. The Supreme Court struck down his COVID vaccine mandate, his moratorium for evicting deadbeat renters, his $500 billion federal student loan forgiveness scheme, and numerous other Biden policies.

Meanwhile, states are arguing in front of the Supreme Court to remove Trump from the ballot, as Biden’s Justice Department scrambles to try and jail the ex-president before the election.

Obviously, if Americans value democracy, then the presidential candidate favored by the most voters in recent polls must not be allowed on the ballot. Team Biden favors a version of “Guardian Democracy” where voters are only permitted to cast ballots for candidates that the ruling class approves.

Why should we believe that democracy dies unless Biden gets four more years of flouting Congress and the Courts to do whatever he pleases through executive order?

Biden’s policies are unpopular. His polls are in a hole. This is his only argument for re-election, and its pretty rich. If Biden really believed in “democracy” he would let the people decide.