MOOSPEAK: JAN17.2025
BIDEN’S FAREWELL
Washington, DC 1/17/2025--
Joe Biden gave his final address as President of the United States this week:
“To you, the American people, after 50 years of public service, I give you my word. I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands. A nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure.”
“Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America. You love it too. God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you for this great honor.”
While paying tribute to the old standards-- God, the flag, the troops, and the American people-- Biden also warned of “the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people… an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
He expressed equal concern “about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country, as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling, editors are disappearing.”
And he added that “Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.”
We should take heed. Biden is right on all three counts. Of course, if you were not aware of the expressed dangers before he spoke, you were obviously living under a rock. The dangers he mentions have been festering for the last eight years. They had their genesis in Covid and in the Trump "Democratic Resistance", but they flourished under the Biden White House.
The one obvious danger the President neglected to mention was the “Deep State”, an un-elected bureaucracy operating at the behest of a single party to weaponize the key functions of government against its enemies through prosecution, taxation, and regulation. Not an unusual oversight perhaps, since in Biden's world the public sector is always good and only the private sector poses a risk.
There is a very old saying among partisan politicians in both parties that is used to excuse an excruciatingly poor candidate for office-- “He may be an idiot, but he’s our idiot”. Deficiencies in one’s candidate are ultimately justified by the horrific prospect of the alternative. Some Republicans said it of Trump, and some Democrats said it of Biden and later Harris.
Point is-- the same can be said of oligarchs, fact checkers, social platforms, website providers, editors, media outlets, bureaucrats, judges, and prosecutors. If they’re your allies, you look the other way. If they’re your enemy’s flunkies, they pose a danger. Perhaps that’s why the soon-to-be-former President has only just come to realize the potential problems such entities might soon pose should they change sides.
Truth is, it benefits no one if Republicans adopt the same abuses of political power we’ve witnessed from Democrats in the last eight years. More abuse will only lead to a death spiral of political recrimination. Being censored, cancelled and unjustly libeled is not to be wished on anyone. (Am there, doing that… and so are you, dear readers.) Being lied to by government destroys all faith in our institutions and seeking to hide it destroys all faith in our leaders.
The voters have definitively declared that enough is enough. Free speech and free association are gifts that shouldn’t be denied. Both are essential to a healthy democratic republic and guaranteed by the constitution. Let’s hope the new administration brings a rebirth of freedom and human decency to a country sorely in need of it and sorely wanting it.
Next Week: 150 new executive orders