Many Americans — conservatives included — have grown exhausted by the Donald Trump presidency. The president’s constant battles with the media, the Democrats’ extreme anger, and the intelligence community’s attempts to undermine a duly-elected president are indeed exhausting. Every day, some new scandal, non-scandal, or controversy soaks up the public discourse. Even those of us who support the president might take some solace in the idea that partisan rancor and division might decrease under a Joe Biden presidency.
Alas, I think the opposite will prove to be the case. In some ways, a Biden presidency may prove even more exhausting than Trump’s has been.
For starters, consider the allegations of Russia collusion that haunted Trump’s presidency from the very start. Sure, Trump hired an unscrupulous staffer or two with notorious Russia-adjacent ties *cough Paul Manafort cough* and he called for closer relations with Russia, but there never was evidence of a massive Russian conspiracy to pull the strings for Trump in the 2016 election.
Even so, rogue actors in the deep state launched an investigation into figures in the Trump campaign, premised on the idea of a Trump-Russia conspiracy. They leaked the salacious and unverified — now fully discredited — Steele dossier to the media, dialed the outrage to eleven, and got a special counsel investigation that hamstrung the Trump administration for years. After all of this, the investigation essentially came up empty. Then Democrats rushed to impeach Trump on a separate matter.
Ironically, that matter involved the scandal that may hamstring a potential incoming Biden administration (Trump is contesting the election results but he is unlikely to prevail). As I’m sure you’re well aware, dear reader, Hunter Biden cashed in on his father’s position by making lucrative deals in Ukraine and China in industries where he had no experience like gas and nuclear energy. Trump wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate potential corruption involving the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, where Hunter Biden served on the board and which Joe Biden seems to have protected.
That scandal was bad enough, but it got worse in the weeks before the 2020 election. The New York Post published a bombshell report based on Hunter Biden’s emails, which appeared to reveal that Joe Biden was very involved with Hunter Biden’s influence trading. When Twitter and Facebook limited sharing of the story and the legacy media largely ignored it, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Tony Bobulinski, came forward with firsthand knowledge — and evidence — tying Joe Biden to the notorious deals.
Washington, D.C., bureaucrats may show little interest in pursuing this tremendously important story, but Republicans in the Senate are interested. If the story continues to develop, it could severely hamstring the Biden administration not unlike the Russia investigation did to Trump.
After Republican gains in the House in 2020, it seems likely a potential President Biden may inspire more Republican wins in 2022, and a potential impeachment shortly thereafter.
While the legacy media and Big Tech will likely try to cover for Biden, the Democratic president will reverse Trump’s progress in key areas, from the historic Middle East peace deals with Israel that Trump secured to the return to sanity in the Trump administration’s curbing of transgender ideology and Marxist critical race theory in the government. The protection of due process in campus sexual assault tribunals will also go out the window, and Biden has pledged to reinstate the harsh contraception mandate that dragged the Little Sisters of the Poor into court for ten years.
All the social pathologies Obama unleashed will breathe new life under Biden, and even with the media working overtime to normalize them, Americans will notice.
Furthermore, Biden is unlikely to prevent antifa’s accusations of “fascism.” After all, the Obama-Biden administration built the “cages” for illegal immigrants, and Biden is unlikely to demolish them on his first day in office. Even if he were to do so, the U.S. has laws on the books that restrict immigration and Biden is unlikely to erase those while a Republican Senate hamstrings his radical agenda in Congress.
No, antifa will not be going away. The far-left agitators’ presence at the Million MAGA March on Saturday demonstrated that.
Trump supporters — and Trump voters — will not be going away anytime soon, either. Biden may have won the 2020 presidential election, but Trump still got 71 million votes. He picked up support among women and minorities, and his message will continue to resonate after he leaves the Oval Office. Trumpism is here to stay, and Biden is only likely to inflame it.
Finally, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is no spring chicken. Sadly, Americans will be watching his health throughout his tenure, waiting for something to happen. It is quite possible that Biden will expire in office — or that he will become too frail for the job. If he resigns, a potential Vice President Kamala Harris will take the reins, and that is a horrifying prospect for free speech and the rule of law in America.
I’ll be praying for Joe Biden, asking God to grant him wisdom, humility, health, and long life — in part to prevent Kamala Harris from taking charge at the Resolute Desk. But every time Joe Biden stutters, every time he slips, every time he calls a “lid” after a certain time in the morning, my heart will beat just a little bit faster.
No, America, we are not in for a less stressful time in 2021. Things are only likely to get more exhausting. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
