{"id":18417,"date":"2023-06-20T12:41:22","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T16:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=18417"},"modified":"2023-06-20T18:53:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T22:53:09","slug":"defining-dictator-down-wont-make-us-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/20\/defining-dictator-down-wont-make-us-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Dictator Down Won\u2019t Make Us Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defining Dictator Down Won\u2019t Make Us Free<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n
By \"JamesJames Bovard<\/span><\/a> <\/span> \u00a0 June 20, 2023<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

For 27 seconds last Tuesday night, Fox News posted a chyron beneath a video of President Biden: \u201cWannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.\u201d That sparked a media uproar over what was portrayed as the biggest breach of decorum since the 1865 assassination of President Lincoln at Ford\u2019s Theater.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/em> howled that Fox News \u201cshocks with \u2018wannabe dictator<\/a>\u2019 graphic.\u201d A Daily Beast<\/em> columnist shrieked that the chyron \u201cspreads dangerous lies<\/a>.\u201d Liberal zealots called for completely shutting down Fox News \u2013 as if the network had committed a sin that could never be expunged.<\/p>\n

But rather than razing a network headquarters, Americans must recognize the disputed terminology that spurred this fracas.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s critics are using an archaic definition of dictatorship, one that focuses myopically on whether a president obeys the law and the Constitution. Under the new definition, \u201cdictatorship\u201d only refers to rulers who do bad things to good people. (Maybe the National Security Agency can automatically \u201ccorrect\u201d all dictionaries on the Internet.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Biden explained last year, Republicans are guilty of \u201csemi-fascism<\/a>.\u201d So, nothing Biden does to his political opponents can be \u201cdictatorial\u201d because they deserve whatever the feds inflict.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is true that Biden dictated that 84 million Americans working for large companies must get injected with the Covid vaccine. But that wasn\u2019t dictatorial because, as Biden explained, vaccine skeptics were murderers who only wanted \u201cthe freedom to kill you<\/a>\u201d with Covid. (The Supreme Court nullified that dictate early last year.)<\/p>\n

It is true that the Biden White House dictated that social media companies suppress billions of posts, including true information from critics of the administration\u2019s Covid policies. But that didn\u2019t count because, as top Biden advisor Andrew Slavitt declared, \u201cPeople with murderously selfish ideas<\/a>\u2014 driven by an unwillingness to sacrifice & wrapped in phony intellectualism\u2014 entered\u201d the debate over Covid policies. (A federal appeals court is exposing the vast sweep of Biden\u2019s Covid censorship.)<\/p>\n

It is true that Biden issued a dictate extending the national moratorium on evictions of deadbeat renters. The Supreme Court torpedoed Biden\u2019s policy. But he was blameless because the Court decision relied on an archaic standard: \u201cOur system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully<\/a> even in pursuit of desirable ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true that Biden appointees dictated that two-year-old children in Head Start must wear masks<\/a> all day. But that wasn\u2019t dictatorial because children were permitted to briefly remove the masks when they ate meals. (A federal judge torpedoed that mandate in late 2022.)<\/p>\n

It is true that Biden revived dictatorial policies that entitled federal bureaucrats to ban landowners from farming or building on any land with puddles, ditches, or other purported wet spots. But Biden had no choice but to take drastic action to rescue his environmentalist supporters from hopeless depressions. (The Supreme Court nullified Biden\u2019s<\/a> wetlands policies last month).<\/p>\n

It is true that Biden dictated that taxpayers must shoulder the cost of $300+ billion in federal student loans that he canceled to buy political support. But that didn\u2019t count because God wanted Democratic candidates to do well<\/a> in last November\u2019s midterm election. (The Supreme Court is expected to nullify Biden\u2019s student loan forgiveness scheme in the coming weeks.)<\/p>\n

It is true that the Biden White House dictated that the FBI target and investigate parents who protested at school board meetings. But the feds were justified in classifying mothers and fathers as terrorist threats<\/a> because they committed verbal micro-aggressions against liberal sacred cows including the teachers\u2019 union.<\/p>\n

It is true that Biden appointees are arbitrarily dictating sweeping prohibitions of firearms parts that could turn tens of millions of peaceful gun owners<\/a> into federal felons. But that is not dictatorial because \u201cC\u2019mon, man!<\/a>\u201d Or maybe, \u201cWhy\u2019d you ask such a<\/a> dumb question?\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true that Biden dictated\u2026 actually, we probably have not heard or seen his most arbitrary or dangerous dictates. T<\/strong>he Biden administration is stonewalling congressional investigations and dropping a cloak of secrecy around its most controversial policies. But this is not a dictatorial abuse because Biden needs a second term to \u201cliterally redeem<\/a> the soul of America\u201d (as he promised on Wednesday).<\/p>\n

The hypersensitivity over tagging Uncle Joe with the D-word is ludicrous after activists spent four years howling that Donald Trump was literally Hitler, or maybe only Stalin. Many protestors who vehemently denounced Trump were not opposed to dictators per se; they simply wanted different dictates. Now that Biden is dictating at full speed, Biden\u2019s allies seek to rewrite the English language<\/strong>. As usual, the Washington media devotes far more attention to political labels than to the realities of government power.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps Biden could satisfy his gender-fluid supporters by coming out publicly and personally identifying as \u201cnon-dictator.\u201d But other Americans will continue wryly watching the political rascality, laughing at the media\u2019s snit-fits, and awaiting the next judicial demolition of Biden\u2019s decrees.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defining Dictator Down Won\u2019t Make Us Free By James Bovard \u00a0 June 20, 2023 For 27 seconds last Tuesday night, Fox News posted a chyron beneath a video of President Biden: \u201cWannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.\u201d That sparked a media uproar over what was portrayed as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2124,3497,451,2349,940,182,2578,2285,3388,708,3792],"class_list":["post-18417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biden","tag-brownstone","tag-constitution","tag-covid","tag-dictator","tag-guns","tag-mandate","tag-masks","tag-student-loans","tag-trump","tag-wannabe-dictator"],"yoast_head":"\nDefining Dictator Down Won\u2019t Make Us Free - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Dictator" has been defined down to refer only to rulers who do bad things to good people.\" \/>\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\/2023\/06\/20\/defining-dictator-down-wont-make-us-free\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defining Dictator Down Won\u2019t Make Us Free - 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