Rule of Law: broadly defined as a concept in which all individuals and groups are subject to the law, regardless of who they are.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a politician, government official, constituent, businessperson, or political party. In a democracy, no one is supposed to be above the law.
But I don’t have to tell you that it doesn’t always work that way. And right now, the headlines are filled with this exception.
The current indictments surrounding Donald Trump and Hunter Biden are center stage, and the politicized hyperbole is rampant.
So, how can we get a good read on all of this? If true, they both are very serious and have far-reaching political ramifications. And the hyperbole can fog everything up.
But if you take a step back and look at both situations from a broad perspective, they both represent one thing: political privilege.
To me, political privilege is when an individual or group thinks they are above the rule of law because of who they are and the power they hold. But it is also when an individual or group thinks they can use the rule of law, or concept of the rule of law, for partisan politics and their political gain.
It’s a double-edged sword, and we see this playing out all too well with Donald Trump, Hunter Biden, and the Democrat and Republican parties.
So, let’s look at both sides of this sword. How, if true, Donald Trump and Hunter Biden are using political privilege to stay above the rule of law, and how the Democrats and Republicans are using political privilege and partisanship to abuse the power of and discredit the rule of law.
Impeachy Keen?
Let’s backtrack and begin with Donald Trump and the Democrats during Trump’s presidency because issues with Trump and Hunter Biden’s involvement start here.
In 2019, Congress approved millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine. However, Donald Trump, then president, decided to withhold the money until he could speak with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
What followed was the basis for Trump’s first impeachment trial. In a phone call with President Zelensky, Trump asked him to look into a situation with Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, his potential political opponent for the 2020 election who was leading in the polls.
Hunter Biden started working at Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, during the Barrack Obama administration. At the time, the British were investigating the company’s owner and wanted Viktor Shokin, Ukraine’s head prosecutor, to investigate the case.
But Shokin did not, and many domestically and internationally wanted Shokin to be replaced for other failures as well, including Obama and Joe Biden, who pushed for Shokin’s removal.
Shokin was removed in 2016, but Donald Trump believed that Joe Biden helped orchestrate Shokin’s removal so Shokin wouldn’t investigate Burisma, therefore helping Hunter, and asked Zelensky to find evidence.
However, Trump’s theory is flawed because Shokin was removed for not investigating things, including Burisma.
Nevertheless, soliciting a foreign country to help discredit your political opponent for the next election isn’t good. And the Democrats smelled blood in the water.
Long story short, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted for impeachment of Donald Trump, to which the Republican-controlled Senate then voted for acquittal.
And political privilege was at the center of it all.
Trump used his political privilege to abuse power and try to get foreign involvement in the 2020 election for his political gain.
And the Democrats used their political privilege to abuse the power of impeachment for their political gain.
Even if you think impeachment was called for, and you can make that case, it was a mistake to do so.
Impeachment is a check on presidents and subjects them to the rule of law. It is for extreme cases that put the constitution and the country in danger, say an insurrection. It is not meant to be used for political gains.
However, by opting for impeachment, the Democrats set the standard that it can be used for any political situation that the opposing party does not like. Don’t like or think the president did something wrong, let’s impeach! A situation playing out with Republicans right now, but we’ll get to that.
But maybe most importantly, this abuse of privilege weakened the rule of law. By impeaching Trump at the first moderate infraction, impeachment and the rule of law lost credibility.
Because when the January 6th impeachment happened, rightfully so, and the recent indictments came down, Trump wasn’t viewed as being subject to the rule of law but as a partisan victim who the Democrats were out to get.
And these events not only weakened the rule of law but strengthened political privilege, leading us directly to today’s events.
Stick it to the Man!
When the indictments came down against Donald Trump, a funny thing happened. The Democrats finally thought it would spell the end of Donald Trump politically, or at least weaken him even further, but it didn’t.
After January 6th and the events of the end of Trump’s presidency, he took a big hit. The Republican party seemed ready to move on. Figures like Ron DeSantis were gaining momentum, and unless they were a die-hard supporter of Trump, many Republican constituents seemed ready to move on too.
But then the indictments came down. And the support for Donald Trump was strong.
Not only did Trump gain support, but he also gained momentum in the polls and the realm of Republican public opinion, the opposite of what you think would happen.
Now that those serious circumstances discussed earlier have occurred, we need to use impeachment, indictments, and our legal justice system to sort them out fairly.
But the opposite is happening. People are ignoring the foundation of the rule of law, and political privilege is taking even another form.
Donald Trump is now using his political privilege to say the Democrats are weaponizing the law with all these charges and are out to get him.
This is establishing the rule of law as invalid because of partisanship.
As I mentioned in my other article, The Horror of Politics, Trump could realistically break any law at this point and get away with it by saying the Democrats and the government are weaponizing the law or that if they can do it to him, they could do it to you!
However, we don’t get to say that. If I get pulled over for speeding, I can’t get out of it by saying the Democrats are setting me up and weaponizing the police force because I’m an independent!
But Donald Trump can, and this should frustrate you. He is now above the rule of law.
But he’s not the only one, and the Democrats aren’t the only party abusing their political privilege.
Big Game Hunter
At first glance, it may appear that Hunter Biden just got caught up in Trump’s theory about Ukraine and Joe Biden. But there is a lot of smoke surrounding Hunter Biden, and there has been for years.
Not only questions with Burisma and Ukraine, but suspicions surrounding business dealings in China, where Hunter, with American and Chinese partners, established an investment company called BHR.
Hunter is also being charged with tax evasion, which came down earlier this month. It alleges a four-year scheme to not pay at least 1.4 million in federal taxes.
Now, I will say before I go further that Hunter Biden is innocent until proven guilty, as it is for Trump as well, and the process is developing, but we don’t have as many hard facts as we do for Trump.
Trump’s cases have played out over a more extended period and have concluding investigations, so we have more evidence out in the open.
The January 6th case played out on live tv, there were classified documents found in Trump’s home, and there’s open documentation that Trump asked Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to find enough votes to win him the state of Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
However, Trump can still provide evidence to clear himself as well.
Hunter Biden’s dealings are more private. The tax evasion indictment is now out in the open and reeks of political privilege. But the rest concerning his business dealings is still a mystery. And that’s what makes it suspicious.
The tax evasion case is exhibit A of what we think of with traditional political privilege. A family member of a high-ranking official or politician who believes they are above the rule of law and can behave in a way the rest of the country cannot.
And Hunter himself has admitted as much. In his recent statement on Capitol Hill, he commented that he made mistakes and wasted opportunities and privileges, which I give him credit for acknowledging and addressing.
However, with his foreign business dealings, things get suspicious. And for Hunter and the Republicans, it could go either way.
Republicans are investigating whether Joe Biden made money from Hunter’s foreign business dealings with the previously mentioned businesses in Ukraine and China. This past week, they have opened a formal impeachment inquiry into this.
However, the Republicans have no credible evidence yet, and nothing is linking Joe Biden to any wrongdoing so far.
This leaves two options going forward. Either Joe Biden is involved with Hunter’s businesses and abused his political privilege for financial gain, or the Republicans are using political privilege and partisanship to abuse the rule of law.
As of now, it seems the latter is true because the Republicans have yet to produce credible evidence. But we’ll see how the continuing investigation goes.
In the meantime, it seems we have come full circle since Donald Trump’s first impeachment, with a political party once again abusing the impeachment power for their political gain.
It seems like the Republicans need a counter to the indictments of Trump and want to continue the Joe Biden/Hunter Biden business corruption theory of Trump’s from before. Something to continue the narrative that corruption is rampant and some proof that Joe Biden is at the center of it all.
However, all of this is ongoing, and the results of all these indictments and investigations will occur in the coming months.
One thing is for sure: political privilege is rampant, and we need a change.
While we may not be able to eliminate political privilege entirely, elected officials and political organizations can decide to set a new standard by taking political responsibility.
Responsibility to public service and America, not to themselves and their party. A new breed of politics and politicians that don’t embrace selfishness and partisanism.
Will they ever do that? And will we ever find this new brand of politics? That remains to be seen.
But it’s ultimately our responsibility because we elected both the Democrats and Republicans who embrace this political privilege and extreme partisanism.
So, it’s up to us to elect, support, and embrace a new type of politics.
This is so true. The Democrats really opened the flood gates for the next few presidents to get impeached simply because the opposing party doesn’t like what the president is doing. The precedent is there now.
And at this current time, the impeachment only goes as far as whoever has the majority in the House. The conviction/acquittal depending on the majority in the Senate. It shouldn’t be about political lines and whoever has the majority. It should be based on if what the president did was actually worthy of impeachment.