President Donald Trump has recently committed a new faux pas in his cling to power; he pressed the Ukraine government to spill the beans on some dirt for Joe Biden’s controversial son, Hunter Biden. This comes in the midst of one of the tensest political climates this century, and is yet another indication we’re living in the movie Idiocracy.
Hunter Biden, the middle child of Joe Biden and his late wife, has been enveloped in controversial stories for years. Earlier in 2019, he revealed his personal demons with drugs and alcohol. In 2014, he was discharged from the Navy Reserves for testing positive to cocaine, an event that is one of the many building blocks that creates this controversy.
As a lawyer and a lobbyist, Hunter did not take the path of politics that many others in his immediate family felt the draw to. He was never one that wanted to fall into the public eye, which is a mentality easy to sympathize with. The life events of this individual are a juicy steak that many tabloids love to sink their teeth into.
Some of the controversies surrounding this individual are personal. In previous years, Hunter was caught up in scandal when it was discovered he was dating Hallie, the widow of his deceased brother Beau. This was during controversial and tumultuous accusations of Hunter buying crack off the streets in LA, amidst rehab struggles and coping with the death of his brother.
Some of the controversies involved public opinion. Hunter Biden was accused of being involved with crooked business dealings with a natural gas company, Burisma, in Ukraine. Recently, Donald Trump has made accusations that Hunter Biden has been receiving illicit payments from this shifty company, including monthly dealings of $1,000,000 dollars. In tweets, because of course that’s the only way this president can communicate, he states that “Sleepy Joe” must know about this dealings, which would indict the whole Biden family in corruption.
In fact, this stream of questioning from President Trump pressing Ukraine with the explicit purpose to find out whether or not Joe Biden or his son were involved in any illegal collusion. This was the lead factor to the whistleblowing that landed Trump in a hot pot of possible impeachment. President Trump has been alleged to withhold military resources from Ukraine if they did not comply.
Out of all the things I had just discussed, only the last two had anything to do with politics. And yet, if you do some research on this subject yourself, it is impossible to find factual articles that do not include most of those other details.
Hunter Biden has clearly had a road the public do not know much about, apart from what is aired in the dirty laundry. In the decades of controversy surrounding him, the tie to Joe Biden is the only reason the world cares. Responsively, Hunter’s actions are seen as a compounding on the 47th Vice President.
For the life of me, I’ve never understood why the sins of one’s family members should be pedestals for national-scale judgment towards the family. Individuals with public power and pull should be held accountable, absolutely, but scandals involving family do nothing productive.
Don’t get me wrong, the controversies involving illicit dealings in government are incredibly important to take seriously. If Hunter Biden is using his pull to achieve an edge for his father, that should be exposed. If Joe Biden used his political power to interfere with allegations towards Burisma to protect his son, that should be exposed. Abuse of power should be exposed.
But a lover’s tryst between grieving individuals? A discharge from the military due to drugs? Those are facets of a messy and tragic life, yes, but they don’t benefit the public by being brought up every article. They don’t reveal crucial information for political-power misuse. They’re just ugly facts.
There is a certain danger in political narratives being more about the flashy scandals and less about the complicated, subtle, and poisonous scandals that rot societies from the inside.