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President Joe Biden is wrong on just about everything consequential. It’s actually quite remarkable. Biden doesn’t seem to be able to land on the correct position on any important topic even by sheer happenstance. That’s my view. It’s also apparently the view of a substantial majority of Americans, since Biden polls well underwater on every major issue. Now we can add Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison to Biden’s detractors.

Biden’s Latest Un-American, Tyrannical Pronouncement

Biden’s latest consequential error came in his comments about the verdict in The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump case and Trump’s (and much of the public’s) reaction to that verdict. Biden fumed that it is “reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say that this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”     

In fact, the opposite is true. It is necessary, healthy, and responsible (in the quintessential sense of American responsibility) for people to speak out when they do not agree with the government’s exercise of prosecutorial power.

This is particularly true and applicable when the defendant being prosecuted also happens to be the leading opposition candidate in a campaign for the highest political office in the land. The same holds true for candidates (and their supporters) who claim an election was manipulated.

The day candidates and their supporters lose the right to speak out about the conduct of prosecutions or elections is the day we lose our freedom. But the situation is substantially more fragile than that. The day that candidates and their supporters lose their willingness to speak out about the conduct of prosecutions and elections is the day we become certain to eventually lose our freedom.

Biden’s intimidating remarks were squarely aimed at undermining such willingness. It is Biden’s remarks that are reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible, particularly coming from a president. A government’s best — and only — path for gaining the confidence of the people is to show the people why they should have confidence, not to call the people’s inquiries “reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible.”

Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison Didn’t Want to Live in Biden’s World

There are plenty of places where defendants may not claim their trials were rigged or where candidates may not claim their elections were stolen: China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, to name a few. The history books are also littered with descriptions of such places, like the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. I don’t want to live in places like that. Neither did Jefferson, Franklin, or Madison. Neither should you.

America was founded on the principle — albeit politically unique at the time — that you get to the right answer by hearing every point of view. As Thomas Jefferson put it: “Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to truth.” The founders rightly understood this to be true. But Benjamin Franklin is credited for taking this concept to a higher level with respect to government-sponsored “truths” by explaining: “It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” 

Sadly, Joe Biden, and many in the Democrat Party, have not endorsed or adopted these principles of government. That’s how you end up with “Disinformation Governance Boards,” government/Big Tech censorship programs, and similar nonsense like Biden’s recent remarks. The American left operates on the principle — against which James Madison once warned — that the deprivation of freedom is most easily accomplished through baby steps: “There are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation.”

And although I rarely agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we see eye-to-eye on this point: “There is no time in history where the people censoring free speech were the good guys.” 

It is therefore obvious that neither the desire to speak out about a prosecution or election, nor the act of speaking out, is reckless, dangerous, or irresponsible in America. On the contrary, those things are part and parcel of being American. It is every American’s first responsibility.

Of course, I understand and respect that Biden also was exercising his free-speech rights in making his baseless statement. I encourage more, not less, speech from the man so that every American can get a greater insight into how foolish and dangerous he actually is. I’m simply pointing out that on this important topic, Biden is very wrong — indeed un-Americanly wrong — yet again.  

Joseph LoBue is a retired Naval officer and attorney.