Biden’s not-so-subtle lurch toward dictatorship. By Richard Stern.
In the wake of the midterm elections, President Joe Biden was asked during a rare press conference, in reference to Twitter’s new owner, whether he thought Elon Musk was a threat to national security. With a pause and a smirk, the president said that topic was “worthy of being looked at.”
That’s a bit rich from someone who took money from Ukrainians and Chinese — who could only have been paying his family to influence US policy.
With those words, Biden made it clear that if you even seem to oppose his politics, your private life will be under the direct scrutiny of the state. Despite his constant prattle about saving our democracy, Biden seems to think he’s running an authoritarian police state.
In truth, the federal government already maintains entities that review acquisitions such as Musk’s for anything from foreign influence to anti-competitive business practices. After many months in which Musk’s negotiations to purchase Twitter happened in full public view, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that she sees no basis for the government to investigate that purchase.
Despite Musk’s having followed the law, Biden, on a whim, wants to change the game. Suddenly, and after years of Twitter and other social media having significant foreign investors, a normal and transparent voluntary transaction is a potential “threat to national security.”
Biden signaled his desire to strip off the veneer of the rule of law and use the power of the presidency as a dictator would — by his whim and without respect for the rules that everyone else must abide by. …
With his shameful comment on Musk and Twitter, Biden made it clear that the rules apply as he sees fit, to whom he sees fit. There can be no prosperity in a country where your right to the fruits of your labor is not sacrosanct, and where the law is applied unevenly to favor those connected to the regime.
Everyone fears authoritarian behavior or possible suspension of democracy and peaceful transfers of power when their opponents are in office. But, even given that, the US left shows some worrying signs.
