{"id":15408,"date":"2020-12-18T09:02:04","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T14:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=15408"},"modified":"2024-09-11T16:03:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T20:03:28","slug":"bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden’s “Will of the People” Malarkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Conservative, December 18, 2020<\/h3>\n

Biden\u2019s \u2018Will of the People\u2019 Malarkey<\/span><\/a><\/h1>\n
\n

Generations of presidents have cited “the will of the people” to legitimize power grabs. The Founding Fathers wouldn’t approve.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
by James Bovard <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

In his cough-ridden victory speech Monday night, President-elect Joe Biden proclaimed again that \u201cthe will of the people prevailed<\/a>\u201d in the 2020 election. Biden invoked that phrase four times in one speech, and he\u2019ll likely recite it often in the coming months to sanctify his new policies and proclamations. Biden also declared, \u201cIn America, politicians don\u2019t take power \u2014 the people grant it to them.\u201d But invoking the \u201cwill of the people\u201d helps president seize all the power they claim to need, regardless of the Constitution or any provision of federal law.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Americans are encouraged to believe that their vote on Election Day somehow guarantees that the subsequent ten thousand actions by the president, Congress, and federal agencies will embody their wishes, spoken or otherwise, known or unknown. In reality, the more edicts a president issues, the less likely his decrees have any connection to popular preferences. And campaign promises are even less legally binding than a Tinder tryst\u2019s promise to stay in touch<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to invoke \u201cthe will of the people\u201d to consecrate his most audacious power grabs. In a 1937 fireside chat, he denounced the Supreme Court for thwarting \u201cthe will of the people<\/a>\u201d \u2013 which FDR supposedly incarnated because he had been re-elected the previous year. The court had struck down several New Deal laws as unconstitutional in part because they turned federal bureaucrats into tinhorn dictators. FDR sought to pack the Supreme Court with appointees to rubberstamp his policies, sparking a backlash in Congress and the nation that hobbled him for years afterwards. If Biden decides to follow FDR\u2019s footsteps in seeking to vastly expand the number of justices, expect \u201cwill of the people\u201d to shroud his infamy.<\/p>\n

FDR invoked \u201cwill of the people\u201d to provide a Teflon shield for his sign-off on the enslavement of East Europeans. In the summit communique at the 1945 Yalta conference with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, the three leaders \u201cpledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections of governments responsive to the will of the people<\/a>\u201d in the former Axis nations and liberated countries of Europe. A few weeks later, FDR told Congress that the Yalta agreement was \u201cthe most hopeful agreement possible for a free, independent, and prosperous Polish people.\u201d Even before Roosevelt died in April 1945, it was clear that the secret deals cut at Yalta guaranteed that a hundred million people in eastern and central Europe would fall under the Soviet boot.\u00a0 But the claptrap in the Yalta communique helped fawning historians protect FDR\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

Presidents sometimes invoke the \u201cwill of the people\u201d to shroud the vast damage Washington inflicts on the citizenry.<\/strong> At a 1974 White House Conference on Domestic and Economic Affairs, President Gerald Ford declared, \u201cFederal, State, and local units of government responding to the will of the people<\/a> will whip inflation.\u201d Ford trumpeted a \u201cWhip Inflation Now\u201d campaign and boasted that 150,000 people had requested WIN buttons. Ford labeled inflation, running at a 12% annual rate, as \u201cpublic enemy number one.\u201d Ford talked as if inflation was a moral failing of the American people\u2013rather than primarily the result of the government printing extra money to finance deficit spending. Thanks to the Federal Reserve\u2019s monetary spigots, the U.S. dollar has lost more than 80%<\/a> of its purchasing power since 1974.<\/p>\n

The \u201cwill of the people\u201d encourages the delusion that ballots have magical powers to control the following four years.<\/strong> On the eve of the 1992 election, President George H. W. Bush told a Texas audience: \u201cWith your vote, you are going to help shape the future<\/a> of this, the most blessed, special nation that man has ever known and God has helped create\u2026. Look at your vote as an act of power, a statement of principle.\u201d Yet, few if any of the people who voted the following day were making \u201ca statement of principle\u2019 in favor of permitting the president to deploy troops abroad on his whim (as Clinton did in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and elsewhere), permitting the government to waive the Posse Comitatus<\/a> Act and use military equipment against American civilians (as happened at Waco), or permitting the FBI to expand its wiretapping<\/a> by up to a hundred-fold?<\/p>\n

\u201cWill of the people\u201d provides pre-absolution for any use of power by a winning politician.<\/strong> Two days after his 2004 reelection victory, President George W. Bush declared: \u201cWhen you win, there is a feeling that the people have spoken<\/a> and embraced your point of view\u2026 and the people made it clear what they wanted.\u201d But was Bush\u2019s vengeful obliteration of Fallujah<\/a>, Iraq in the following weeks the \u201cwill of the people\u201d? Did voters consent to the Bush administration\u2019s medieval-like attempt to use tortured confessions as bona fide evidence<\/a> in federal court? Did voters subconsciously will the National Security Agency\u2019s vast illegal surveillance regime<\/a> of their emails and phone calls?<\/p>\n

Since the Electoral College designated Biden the winner of the 2020 election, should we presume that every policy that Biden and his advisors approved in his Delaware basement during the campaign is the will of the American people? Biden said that he would appoint Beto O\u2019Rourke as \u201cthe one who leads\u201d his efforts to restrict gun ownership. Beto was famous for his \u201cHell yes, we\u2019re going to take your AR-15<\/a>\u201d campaign promise. Does that mean it is the \u201cwill of the people\u201d to confiscate more than ten million firearms? \u00a0 And shall we pretend it is the \u201cwill of the people\u201d if Biden attacks and topples the Assad regime<\/a> in Syria, one of the obsessions of his retread foreign policy team from the Obama era?<\/p>\n

The \u201cwill of the people\u201d switcheroo is even more farcical for state and local elections.\u00a0 When Los Angeles residents voted for mayor in 2017, did they have any idea that Eric Garcetti would prohibit them from taking any walks outside<\/a> of their home as part of a demented Covid prevention policy? Did Virginian voters in 2017 realize that the candidate who won the most votes would be entitled to prohibit them going out of<\/a>\u00a0their homes from midnight to 5 a.m., as Governor Ralph Northam did last week? Did Michigan voters in 2018 secretly will that the winning gubernatorial candidate could prohibit anyone from leaving<\/a> their home to visit family or friends, as Gretchen Whitmer did earlier this year?<\/p>\n

After the election, Biden\u2019s buildbackbetter.gov website announced that \u201csocial distancing is\u2026 a dial<\/a>\u201d that Biden will twist to determine whether people can go to work, school, or church. How many Americans realized that they were voting for a candidate who could dial away almost everything in their daily lives? Over the last four months, Biden has flip-flopped on whether he will impose a national economic shutdown<\/a> as part of his Covid policy. If he places hundreds of millions of Americans under house arrest early next year, rest assured that liberal newspaper editorials will insist that people have no right to complain because they did this to themselves by voting for Biden.<\/p>\n

Exalting \u201cthe will of the people\u201d\u00a0 is another sign of the downward spiral of representative government\u2013as if the personal\u00a0 preferences of one politician are the essence of democracy. The Founding Fathers designed a political system in which the Constitution perpetually trumped periodic vote counts.<\/strong> At the time of the American Revolution, elections were seen as a means for people to protect themselves against rulers\u2014kings, ministers, or any other official wrongdoer. Law professor John Phillip Reid observed, \u201cEighteenth-century representation was primarily an institution of restraint<\/a> on governmental power.\u201d But nowadays, rather than serving as leashes, elections are more likely to be dangerous propellants\u2013especially with ready-made phrases to hallow winning politicians.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t expect to hear any doubts or insights into \u201cthe will of the people\u201d phrase from editorial writers. The typical Washington pundit could explain the philosophical controversies regarding \u201cwill of the people\u201d as well as an Arkansas high school dropout explains Einstein\u2019s Theory of Relativity. (\u201cRousseau who<\/a>?\u201d said the PBS panelist.)\u00a0 Many of the commentators who echo Biden\u2019s \u201cwill of the people\u201d invocation are also champions of Leviathan<\/a>. They hail \u201cdemocratic\u201d processes that often enable politicians to capture nearly unlimited government power to impose policies favored by the elite.<\/p>\n

Nor will Biden\u2019s cheerleaders stoop to explain how the \u201cwill of the people\u201d can be divined from 65 million mostly unverified mail-in ballots<\/a>.\u00a0 This year\u2019s \u201cVox Populi, Vox Dei\u201d is being deduced simply from the sum total of pieces of paper with a blot near Biden\u2019s name that happened to turn up in a government bin or mailing address by a certain date. For most federal policies, the 2020 election results provide as reliable guidance as that proffered by Roman priests reading entrails of sacrificed animals to reveal the will of the gods. In lieu of credible evidence, we will be endlessly reminded that submitting to the \u201cwill of the people\u201d (manifested in Biden\u2019s executive orders) is the cornerstone of our \u201ccivic religion.\u201d Should we presume Biden can be trusted with vast new powers because of a Holy Ghost of Democracy hovering above the Oval Office<\/strong>? \u201cDemocracy requires faith<\/a>,\u201d declared Washington Post<\/i> columnist Eugene Robinson, who was yelping \u201cGod Bless the \u2018Deep State\u2019<\/a>\u201d not long previously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill of the people\u201d is one of those intellectual circus-shell games in which freedom almost always loses. Admittedly,\u00a0 Biden never campaigned to \u201cmake America constitutional again.\u201d But the same media cadre now working overtime to valorize his career and legitimize his power will also exploit any deference-inducing shibboleth they can find.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Bovard<\/strong>\u00a0is the author of\u00a0<\/i>Lost Rights<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Attention Deficit Democracy<\/a>, and\u00a0<\/i>Public Policy Hooligan<\/a>. He is also a\u00a0<\/i>USA Today\u00a0columnist. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0<\/i>@JimBovard<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Conservative, December 18, 2020 Biden\u2019s \u2018Will of the People\u2019 Malarkey Generations of presidents have cited “the will of the people” to legitimize power grabs. The Founding Fathers wouldn’t approve. by James Bovard In his cough-ridden victory speech Monday night, President-elect Joe Biden proclaimed again that \u201cthe will of the people prevailed\u201d in the 2020 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2579,2124,2249,52,2580,504,202,137,710,36,1905,24,12,919],"class_list":["post-15408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ballots","tag-biden","tag-churchill","tag-democracy","tag-fallujah","tag-franklin-roosevelt","tag-fraud","tag-george-w-bush","tag-inflation","tag-iraq","tag-josef-stalin","tag-supreme-court","tag-torture","tag-will-of-the-people"],"yoast_head":"\nBiden's "Will of the People" Malarkey - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biden's "Will of the People" Malarkey - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American Conservative, December 18, 2020 Biden\u2019s \u2018Will of the People\u2019 Malarkey Generations of presidents have cited “the will of the people” to legitimize power grabs. The Founding Fathers wouldn’t approve. by James Bovard In his cough-ridden victory speech Monday night, President-elect Joe Biden proclaimed again that \u201cthe will of the people prevailed\u201d in the 2020 […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-18T14:02:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-11T20:03:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Biden’s “Will of the People” Malarkey\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-18T14:02:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-11T20:03:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1654,\"commentCount\":1,\"keywords\":[\"ballots\",\"Biden\",\"Churchill\",\"Democracy\",\"Fallujah\",\"Franklin Roosevelt\",\"fraud\",\"George W. Bush\",\"inflation\",\"Iraq\",\"Josef Stalin\",\"Supreme Court\",\"Torture\",\"Will of the People\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/\",\"name\":\"Biden's \\\"Will of the People\\\" Malarkey - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-18T14:02:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-11T20:03:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/18\\\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Biden’s “Will of the People” Malarkey\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Biden's \"Will of the People\" Malarkey - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Biden's \"Will of the People\" Malarkey - James Bovard","og_description":"American Conservative, December 18, 2020 Biden\u2019s \u2018Will of the People\u2019 Malarkey Generations of presidents have cited “the will of the people” to legitimize power grabs. The Founding Fathers wouldn’t approve. by James Bovard In his cough-ridden victory speech Monday night, President-elect Joe Biden proclaimed again that \u201cthe will of the people prevailed\u201d in the 2020 […]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2020-12-18T14:02:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-11T20:03:28+00:00","author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Biden’s “Will of the People” Malarkey","datePublished":"2020-12-18T14:02:04+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-11T20:03:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/"},"wordCount":1654,"commentCount":1,"keywords":["ballots","Biden","Churchill","Democracy","Fallujah","Franklin Roosevelt","fraud","George W. Bush","inflation","Iraq","Josef Stalin","Supreme Court","Torture","Will of the People"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/","name":"Biden's \"Will of the People\" Malarkey - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-12-18T14:02:04+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-11T20:03:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/18\/bidens-will-of-the-people-malarkey\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Biden’s “Will of the People” Malarkey"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15418,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15408\/revisions\/15418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}