Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Joe Biden: An Anti-Civilizational, Race-Baiting, Opportunist and Ignoramus

And as all of those things, a worthy representative of the contemporary hard-Left, hate-America, Democrat party. Ben Shapiro has his number:

More importantly, however, Biden's characterization of "English jurisprudential culture" as "white man's culture" is profoundly disturbing. English jurisprudential culture is rooted in the belief in the rule of law, due process of law, equal rights under law; English jurisprudential culture is responsible for preserving the natural rights we hold dear, rights which were imperfectly but increasingly extended over time to more and more human beings, particularly minorities. No less a leftist figure than Barack Obama explained just that in 2009, saying he sought a system at Guantanamo Bay that "adheres to the rule of law, habeas corpus, basic principles of Anglo-American legal system."

Protection of individual rights — and in particular, minority rights — lies at the heart of English jurisprudence. Yet Biden boiled down those rights to racial privilege. And the attempt to reduce the fundamental principles of our civilization to a mask for racial hierarchical power is both false and frightening. It suggests that those principles ought to be undermined for purposes of disestablishing that supposed hierarchy. Get rid of English jurisprudential law, presumably, in order to fight racism.

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Bill Vallicella

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5 responses to “Joe Biden: An Anti-Civilizational, Race-Baiting, Opportunist and Ignoramus”

  1. Vito B. Caiati Avatar
    Vito B. Caiati

    Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts:
    “William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”
    Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”
    William Roper: “Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!”
    Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”

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  2. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    I think Biden is actually possessed, and Obama behind him. How else could you explain the evil they cause and promote? I have never seen anything like it in my long 73 years on this planet.

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  3. BV Avatar
    BV

    Joe,
    In the case of Biden, I don’t think there is need for a preternatural explanation of his behavior. A natural explanation suffices: Biden is a hustler out to promote and enrich himself and his family any way he can. He is not rooted in any principles. He lacks the so-called ‘moral compass.’ For example, he reversed himself on the Hyde Amendment.
    A urologist acquaintance of mine said that he and his colleagues want to do well by doing good. Biden wants to do well whether or not he does good. He wants the trappings of success (money, social status, power, etc.) and will do anything to get them: lie, grift, plagiarize. I see the same type of behavior in Hillary, although in her there is still some residual idealism dating back to her girlhood.
    As for Trump, despite his monstrous ego and other faults, he is rooted in principles, and has deliver3ed on his promises, despite facing hateful opposition the likes of which no president has ever faced before.

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  4. BV Avatar
    BV

    Vito,
    The dialog you reproduced points us to a problem that troubles me.
    Should we do to our enemies what they do to us? If they lie about us, should we lie about them? If they practice ‘lawfare’ against us, should we deploy ‘lawfare’ against them? If they remove Trump from the ballot where they can, should we remove Trump from the ballot where we can?
    YES: If we don’t reply in kind, we, who are the good guys, will lose to the evildoers. Resist not the evildoer?? That may work in a monastery or a loving family, but not in the wide world. Throw down your weapons before Hitler and he will slaughter you on the spot as a decadent specimen not fit to live.
    NO: Two wrongs don’t make a right. To reply in kind is to validate the principle that evil means may be used to secure a good ends.
    My sense is that this is a genuine aporia, an insoluble problem.

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  5. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    But Brother Bill, since evil only ultimately responds to force, and since we have an obligation to protect the weak and innocent, then force, or the threat of force, is a moral thing. Yes, this use is fraught with tricky difficulties, but I believe it is the truth. And the best practice, with the least violence, is to keep up the deterrence from the threat to use force, and for that to work, actual force must be used from time to time. There is a scene in The Godfather when Michael Corleone goes to get a gun to use to neutralize the mobster who tried to kill Don Vito, and the gunsmith who provides him with it, says words to effect that this kind of thing (which Michael is about to do) “has to happen about every ten years. Hitler should have been stopped at Munich.”
    Welcome to the real world, and our duties in it, if not singly, then collectively.

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