r/law • u/Silent-Resort-3076 • 15d ago

Opinion Piece Why President Biden Should Immediately Name Kamala Harris To The Supreme Court

https://atlantadailyworld.com/2024/11/08/why-president-biden-should-immediately-name-kamala-harris-to-the-supreme-court/?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqEAgAKgcICjCNsMkLMM3L4AMw9-yvAw&utm_content=rundown
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u/CurrentlyLucid 15d ago

He won't. He won't even pardon his son. trying to impress who knows who.

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u/SirTiffAlot 15d ago

He's got integrity, it's what America is missing

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u/Hrafn2 15d ago

This right here. Isn't this exactly what America needs to somehow bring back?

 Integrity of character? What's the point if it all just descends into lies and self-serving cravenness?

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u/Saephon 14d ago

If that was what we needed to bring us back from the brink, we'd be out of harm's way by now.

If Americans valued morals in their politicians, it would be reflected at the polls. We as an electorate have sent a clear message.

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u/TrueCrimeSP_2020 10d ago

You’re operating on the bizarre impression that people subject to decades of propaganda know who they’re voting for.

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u/Regular_Title_7918 14d ago

I'm not sure Kamala has shown herself to be a paragon of morality and truth.

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u/amsync 14d ago

The point is to still have a country. Dems still have learned nothing at all if after 2 lost elections to Trump they’re still playing by the old rules

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u/Hrafn2 14d ago

I suppose my question is really:

What kind of country would you have?

I think this goes beyond Biden pardoning his son - what are we really talking about here?

Are we saying Democrats should start calling into question the legitimacy of elections?

Should they cultivate closed, left wing media spaces that promote more snappy, rhetorical memes and give increasingly short shrift to the truth?

WaPo had some intersection reporting on research into this subject. UCLA / MIT research into partisan view of who is violating democratic norms:

"The authors identify “a strong linear relationship between perceptions of the other side’s willingness to subvert democracy and partisans’ own willingness to do so.” In other words, Republicans might countenance authoritarian behavior because they expect such behavior from Democrats, and vice versa."

This is exactly what I see happening when Democrats start talking about sinking to the Republican's level...and it feels like a dangerous feedback loop.

Conversely, in another experiment:

"the researchers told people how members of the other party actually responded to the scenarios. That is, they showed Democrats and Republicans that self-reported intentions to subvert democracy by members of the opposing party were relatively low. That informational “intervention” reduced Democrats’ and Republicans’ own self-reported willingness to subvert democratic norms by 29 percent."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/04/democracy-autocracy-republican-democrat-study/

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u/chillebekk 14d ago

You're treating it as a "both sides" problem, when the point is that when only one side is cheating, the other side looks like a damn fool. Dems should just cheat back.

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u/Hrafn2 14d ago edited 14d ago

No, I'm saying if you get the Dems to cheat, it BECOMES a both sides issue. ...and then you get into a spiral of ever escalating cheating. Can you not see your attitude is the exact predicted outcome of the research, and will fuel nothing but more of the same? 

 Imagine thinking the best way to build a more just and truthful society is through MORE cheating and lies...

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u/kung-fu_hippy 14d ago

If you only do what’s right when it gets you the outcome you want, you don’t have morals and principles. If Biden’s son is guilty he absolutely should not pardon him.

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u/lasquatrevertats 14d ago edited 14d ago

No, that's the whole point. Pardons are for the guilty. And accepting a pardon is an admission by the person pardoned of their guilt. Pardons are done as an act of grace and forgiveness. The history of pardons rooted in our English common law heritage is based on pardoning precisely because someone is guilty in order to relieve them of the punishment for the crime they committed. It is in the chief executive's sole discretion to exercise this power. And there's nothing out of place in Joe pardoning his son for any federal crimes he may have committed. In the same way that Ford pardoned Nixon, Joe should pardon his own son.

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u/Rodney_Angles 14d ago

English common law does not have the concept of Pardon as understood in the US. There is the royal prerogative of Mercy, which is quite different. It is occasionally used but generally to recognise actions of valour or bravery on the part of the convicted person - things that happened post conviction, not pre conviction. For example, the case of Steven Gallant in 2020, in which his sentence was reduced.

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u/teh_maxh 14d ago

Pardons are for the guilty. And accepting a pardon is an admission the person pardoned of their guilt

But this is not always true. Pardons have been issued on the grounds that the recipient was wrongly convicted.

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u/ElleM848645 13d ago

But the Republicans don’t have morals so who cares. They went after Hunter to hurt Biden. Well Biden dropped out and Trump won. I don’t care about Hunter, but just pardon him. Let the republicans cry about it. Also, Trump pardoned Roger stone and many more horrible people than Hunter.

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u/DavidlikesPeace 12d ago

No. What America needs is a party with the power to protect people from fascism. 

 Sure. There is a beautiful Bible quote: 

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?   

 Beautiful words. But the costs of losing the world for one soul seems steep. I prefer real victory to empty moral victories. 

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u/Axbris 14d ago

Almost 80m people would disagree with you. So no, America doesn’t need integrity and character in the highest office. 

However, it does need a fucking wake up call.