Commentary: Biden the dictator!

by James Bovard

December 6, 2022 - On July 4, pretender Joe Biden declared, “Liberty is under assault… rights we assumed were protected are no longer.” Biden, however, was referring solely to a few Supreme Court decisions he deplored, not to the federal supremacy he championed for almost 50 years in the Senate and the White House.

Though Biden (illegitimately) took office preaching the need for “unity,” he increasingly rules like an elective dictator, relying on executive orders and dubious decrees. The Constitution is not permitted to impede the president from any action that might temporarily increase his approval ratings by one or two percentage points. Biden’s arbitrary actions are thrilling some of his supporters. Many of the protestors who have denounced President Donald Trump were not opposed to dictators per se; they simply wanted different dictates, and Biden is doing his best to satisfy their demands.

On his first day in office, Biden issued an executive order compelling people to wear face masks any time they were on federal property. The edict had an unwritten exemption for Washington Poohbahs. Biden went to the Lincoln Memorial a few hours after signing the order, where he posed by the statue of Abraham Lincoln; neither Lincoln nor Biden were wearing a mask. Biden spokesman Jen Psaki scoffed at a reporter’s concern over the apparent crime. “He was celebrating a historic day in our country. We have bigger things to worry about.”

Biden’s order inflamed legions of junior Stasi, who screamed in rage at anyone hiking in national parks without a mask. If Biden has a right to compel everyone to wear a mask on property controlled by the National Park Service, he would also have the right to dictate that people wear two masks - a policy endorsed by flip-flop king COVID Czar Anthony Fauci on Tuesdays and Thursdays but not on other days of the week.

Biden issued an executive order early last year proclaiming “the goal of conserving at least 30% of our lands and waters by 2030.” That target would require almost tripling the amount of land under government restrictions - an area twice the size of the state of Texas. Farmers dread future decrees that could hogtie them in perpetuity. The (illegitimate) Biden (regime) is also pushing to revive the (Barack) Obama-era definition of wetlands that would effectively permit federal control over “virtually any wet spot - or occasionally wet spot in the country, including ditches, drains, seasonal puddle-like depressions, intermittent streams, ponds, impoundments, prairie potholes, and large ‘buffer areas’ of land adjacent to every waterway.”

Last November, the Supreme Court struck down the (illegitimate) Biden (regime)’s attempt to perpetuate a national moratorium on evictions of renters. Six justices scoffed that the (regime)’s legal defense relied “on a decades-old statute that authorizes… measures like fumigation and pest extermination.” The court declared, “Our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends.” The decree profoundly disrupted housing markets in many areas and turned struggling landlords into hostages of renters who were tacitly encouraged by the feds to cease paying their bills. Biden extended the decree even though he publicly admitted, “The bulk of the constitutional scholarship says that it’s not likely to pass constitutional muster. But there are several key scholars who think that it may - and it’s worth the effort.” Biden’s standard for “constitutional” apparently includes any dictate that might conceivably be accepted by five Supreme Court justices.

Last December, Biden issued an executive order to “rebuild trust in government.” Unfortunately for Biden, he cannot also command people to have delusions about politicians being trustworthy. Biden’s executive order called for “transforming federal customer experience and service delivery” from the Social Security Administration and other agencies. But Biden is failing as badly as Benito Mussolini did when he promised to make the trains run on time. Social Security Administration local offices were shut for more than 600 days straight. Federal bureaucrats stayed home, “imposing hardships on millions of people who need to apply for benefits, apply for a card,” and wounding “many of those in greatest need of its services,” according to the Washington Post. Disability advocates and congressional Republicans “contend that the (illegitimate) Biden (regime) is kowtowing to [government employee] unions” in permitting the offices to stay closed year after year (while workers draw full pay for sitting at home).

In April, federal judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle struck down the (illegitimate) Biden (regime)’s mask mandate for air travel, ruling that agencies were not permitted to “act unlawfully” to justify even desirable ends. Mizelle pointed out that the Centers for Disease Control had violated notice and comment guidelines for the proposed mandate. While the CDC claimed that it was vital to compel all passengers to mask up, it did “not explain why all masks - homemade and medical-grade - are sufficient.” The homemade masks have been a farcical remedy from the start - nothing but a placebo designed to alleviate the spread of anxiety. Mizelle pointed out that the CDC mandate “does not require universal masking. It exempts individuals who are ‘eating, drinking, or taking medication’ and a person who is ‘experiencing difficulty breathing’ or who is ‘feeling winded.’” The end of the mask mandate resulted almost overnight in a huge decrease in conflicts between passengers and flight attendants.

Law professor Jonathan Turley observed, “(Pretender) Biden has arguably the worst record of losses in [federal court] the first two years of any recent presidential (regime).” Perhaps Biden’s biggest power grab was his decree that more than 80 million Amerikans working for large private companies must get a COVID vaccine injection. But there is no asterisk in the Bill of Rights: “Void in Case of Virus.”

In a televised September 2021 speech announcing the mandate, Biden declared, “My job as president is to protect all Amerikans.” Actually, his oath of office was to uphold and defend the Constitution, but no matter. Biden issued the equivalent of a declaration of war on 80 million unvaccinated Amerikans, portraying them as Public Enemy Number One (except for postal workers, who the White House exempted from the mandate due to the clout of postal unions). Biden castigated the unvaxxed, “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin; and your refusal has cost all of us.” Biden’s declaration sounded like the threat a dictator makes prior to invading a foreign nation.

Biden finger-wagged, “This is not about freedom or personal choice. It’s about protecting yourself and those around you - the people you work with, the people you care about, the people you love.” But who will protect Amerikans from Biden’s lawless mandates?

Biden did not formally issue his vaccine order until November 5, when his appointees issued a 150,000+ word Federal Register sidewinder, which announced a “jab or job” ultimatum to 10 million health-care workers, millions of private workers at companies with more than 100 employees, and millions of federal employees. The official notice touted the initial 95% claimed efficacy of COVID vaccines from the clinical trials but ignored recent reports that the efficacy had collapsed to far less than 50%. The announcement explained that the “most important inducement [for vaccination] will be the fear of job loss.” The notice did not cite the provision of the Constitution that entitled presidents to destroy jobs. In other words, compulsion produces submission.