OPINION:
President Biden is all in for another four-year term as commander in chief. While Mr. Biden has his reasons for seeking a second term, Americans have their grounds for wanting him out. When weighing both positions, it is clear that Biden 2.0 would put freedom to flight.
Mr. Biden launched his opening second-term campaign pitch by video last Tuesday with dark images of the U.S. Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, which ushered in his divisive rule: “The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom,” he intoned.
“More rights or fewer. I know what I want the answer to, and I think you do, too. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection.”
There is little more American than the yearning for freedom. It’s a felt experience of the ability to think, speak and act without fear of recrimination or retribution. Contrary to the president’s appeal, though, freedom in Biden-era America on the wane.
Examples are too numerous to list fully. Judicial prosecution, including jail time, has ravaged peaceful citizens who wandered near the Jan. 6 Capitol chaos while exercising their right to petition the government for redress of grievances. White House mandates have forced Americans to submit to COVID-19 vaccinations or lose employment.
Secret Biden administration collusion with tech firms, exposed in the Twitter Files, has stripped citizens of their First Amendment right to question official narratives on medicine, climate change and U.S. involvement in faraway wars. The president saw fit to host at the White House Tennessee’s anti-Second Amendment lawmakers, but he uttered not a word of condemnation for the deranged transgender person who shot up a Nashville Christian school, nor of compassion for those who were killed or their loved ones.
It’s unsurprising that only 26% of Americans want Mr. Biden to run again, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey published April 21. Even among his fellow Democrats, only a minority, 47%, favor his campaign for reelection.
A separate NBC poll found that 70% of Americans do not want the president to seek reelection, with 51% of Democrats saying that.
Adding to Mr. Biden’s negatives, owing to his advanced age, are the diminishing prospects of better days ahead. With a win, he would break the record for the oldest sitting president — his own record — set when he took office in 2021 at age 78. And while some octogenarians belie their age, this one performs older than his 80 years, squinting dully out at the world while stumbling over words and stairs.
Americans may ponder another reason for dreading Biden 2.0. Suspicion lingers that the president could reprise his 2020 strategy of barnstorming from the basement, safely shielded from damaging gaffes. Copping another mysterious victory, he could very well bow out and pass the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris to complete his term and gain a head start on her own presidential run.
Even more disturbing is the possibility that the president might cling to power to shield the Bidens — including himself — from the reach of Republican inquiries into allegations that the clan has gotten rich selling access to the White House.
Sadly, the Biden era is running roughshod over freedom. Expecting a different reality during a second Biden term would be naive.
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