On healthy and unhealthy moments – NYT:

‘Patrick Healy, the deputy Opinion editor, hosted an online conversation with the Times Opinion columnists Ross Douthat and David French about President Biden’s decision to issue a broad pardon to his son Hunter Biden.’

(…)

‘Healy: Biden’s decision to rule out the pardon while running for re-election was an enormous misjudgment. At the same time, David — Hunter Biden didn’t harm anyone, and pardons go to people with connections all the time now. I want to understand your umbrage on behalf of “the country and the Constitution” a bit better.
French: When Biden issued the pardon, my first thought was “here we go again.” It’s exactly this kind of self-dealing and favoritism that has created such cynicism in this country, and the fact that pardon abuse is almost routine at this point isn’t a defense of Biden. It’s an indictment of a political class that helped lay the groundwork for Donald Trump — a much worse figure, by the way, but one that did not arise in an otherwise-healthy moment in American democracy.’

(…)

‘Douthat: I’m not saying that Biden’s pardon of Hunter is categorically worse than prior presidents’ use of the power to help out cronies and donors and the like. But most people regarded, say, Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich as scandalous even though it fell within the ambit of legitimate presidential powers, and this case is scandalous as well. Whether it’s more corrupt to help a relative than a party donor or donor’s spouse is an interesting subject for debate about the nature of political ethics, but I don’t think we need to resolve that question. We can just say that (1) past presidents have used the pardon power in legal but disreputable ways and (2) pardoning your son is also quite disreputable even if it is constitutional as well.

Healy: Trump has indicated he would pardon Jan. 6 insurrectionists, whose actions I’d argue were more disreputable and dangerous to the Republic than what Hunter Biden did. So I’m curious how you see pardons in light of the rule of law in this country. Does President Biden’s pardon conflict with or undermine the rule of law?’

(…)

‘French: The pardon is far more wrong than it is politically stupid. Give Trump five minutes, and he’ll say or do something that knocks this pardon off the front page. People will forget the pardon soon enough. But the nation needs integrity, and Biden’s dishonesty contributes to the sense that there isn’t really that much difference between Trump and his opponents.
When you talk to Trump voters, they’ll often share the conviction that Trump isn’t really all that different from other politicians. He’s just more blunt and direct about his goals and objectives, while his opponents act the same way Trump acts, but they conceal their corruption in high-minded rhetoric. This pardon fits that narrative perfectly.
Douthat: What one might say in Biden’s quasi-defense is that while his pardon confirms a general mood of cynicism, that mood is so deeply entrenched that it’s not likely to be deepened that much further by one more act of self-dealing by an already-unpopular president.’

(…)

‘Douthat: In other words, it’s not just Trump’s Department of Justice that he’s thinking about while issuing this pardon; it’s also a Democratic Party that in his view knifed him politically, and to no purpose in the end. And when a man feels betrayed by his allies (not just threatened by his rivals), it’s especially unsurprising that he would revert to the most basic human code: Look out for your own.’

Read the conversation here.

What were the rather healthy moments in American democracy? Should we go back to the 20th century, and how far should we go back?

Yes, the basic human code: look out for your own? The family is miniature tribalism, or at least it should be exactly that. Most families of course consist mostly of failed attempts at tribalism.

The enemies of populism, nationalism, right-wing extremism just use different rhetoric, high-minded rhetoric? Their power games are supposedly basically the same. Exactly that feeling gave rise to Trump and figures like Le Pen, or the AfD in Germany, where the party (for the time being) is slightly less centered around one strong man.