America’s Unethical Ruling Classes
The Trump-Ukraine controversy has now become the focus of the Democratic Party in Congress. House members, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, believe that this is a glaring example of abuse of executive power, and a lot more. Hence the ramping up of an impeachment inquiry.
However, if there is trouble ahead for President Donald Trump, there seems to be trouble for Joe Biden, a likely Democratic opponent in 2020, as well. Indeed, going a few years back, at the source of all this there is the work that Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, did for a Ukrainian energy company. Now, what was the son of the then Vice President of the United States doing, working for a company established in one of the most corrupt countries in the world? Why was he offered the job? And why did he accept it? As a minimum, this issue raises some questions.
Looking at all this from a broader perspective, The Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan argues that the American elites lost any ethical standard. It is alright these days to leverage daddy’s high office for personal gain. The alleged (not proven) improprieties connected to Hunter Biden’s work with this Ukrainian company is what drove Trump (according to the whistleblower report) to put pressure on the Ukrainian President so that some dirt on Biden Junior may be found, so that it will be used against Biden Senior in the upcoming presidential elections.
But Noonan in her September 28, 2019 WSJ column makes a larger point, worth noting:
“It is infuriating that members of America’s leadership class so often show themselves to the world as self-enriching. As a nation we spent the 20th century presenting ourselves to the world as a truly moral leader, a self-sacrificing country, one to be looked up to. In the 21st century our political figures and their families too often look like scrounging grifters—Americans with connections who can be hired, who leverage connections to fame for profit. There’s a fairly constant air of soft corruption, of an easy, seamy reality of big-power back scratching.
It makes America look bad. It makes us look weak and craven, like we can be bought.
There should be something called the Class Act. If you have any class, you don’t profit financially from a relative in power in the world’s greatest democracy. You don’t embarrass your country that way. Because, you know, you have class. You’re lucky to be from a respected family. A president or vice president might say, “It’s unfair to make my child sacrifice a deal because of what his father does!” Actually, no one asked you to ask for power; no one told you to want it. If you get it, it’s an honor. Do your job. Yes, your family should sacrifice, as should you.
The story of Hunter Biden and his business adventures isn’t new, and yet sometimes stories come alive in new ways. This one will probably come into focus for a while and be emblematic of the swamp.
Joe Biden probably thought it was old news, already dissected and dismissed. But it’s back, and will hit him like a kidney punch.”
—Peggy Noonan, “Democrats Set A Bear Trap” in The Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2019
https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-set-a-bear-trap-11569539234?mod=hp_opin_pos_1