Philosopher Bill Valicella argues we must differentiate between style and character. That is, the difference between how someone presents themselves and the sort of person that person actually is. Here is where people become confused in thinking Joe Biden is a man of better character than President Trump. Naturally, I disagree. At most, Biden is a man with a more amenable style, but style is not character, as Valicella points out, and for anybody who has followed the political career of Joe Biden the final analysis is this: Joe Biden is a bad man.
Style can be affected, whereas character is something like that inevitable accumulation of qualities (good or bad) – truthfulness, prudence, etc. – based on how a person has lived their life. It is obvious that bad men often have attractive styles. That is why conmen and politicians (pardon the redundancy) are effective: it is because they can fool people into thinking their style represents their character. This, I contend, is precisely what Joe Biden has done.
For we must not forget that Biden is a repeat, proven liar, demonstrated plagiarist, and horrifically unprincipled, flipping constantly on political issues (most horrendously abortion, but also the Hyde amendment, forcing contraception coverage on nuns, the list continues), blowing wherever the cultural climate takes him. This is doubly alarming because Biden claims to be a faithful, practicing Catholic. But I cannot imagine Biden is ignorant to the extent he doesn’t know what the Catholic Church teaches on these critical issues, but if he is, that itself is a tremendous mark against Biden’s character. He is, at that point, just an incredibly stupid person. But it’s worse, if we’re being honest. Because Biden knows perfectly well what the Catholic Church teaches on life and sexual ethics, which means he is a disingenuous fraud. He either doesn’t believe it, or he doesn’t have the courage to uphold it. There is no way out for Biden on this one; no matter how you look at it, these are serious character faults; disqualifying, in fact. Putting party above faith is a considerable mark against character: not an option for faithful Catholics.
At this point, people will say, “But what about separation of Church and state?” misunderstanding the context of what that proclamation was meant to protect (religious freedom), but that’s irrelevant to this discussion. Catholics cannot promote grave evils for the sake of some other political agenda. This is about the character of Joe Biden, not the political structure of the United States and what we think that should be (secular, integralist, etc.). It’s not even about the intrinsic evil of abortion, but the inconsistency of Biden on an issue where there should not be any.
It should also be clear that Biden is incurably racist according to every modern left-wing conception of the term (think: his infamous support of the ’94 crime bill, promotion of Planned Parenthood, etc.; this article ends on a note of naïve optimism, but summarizes Biden’s assault on minority persons well), has been accused (and believably, according to his own VP!) of sexual harassment, and is absolutely low-level corrupt, if not considerably worse. Biden is literally the epitome of an establishment politician and personally responsible (as is Kamala) for the disenfranchisement – and criminalization – of countless minorities. He is a man of no principles, not even the wrong ones.
Finally, comes the banal, puff-piece statements. As if his outright lies were not enough, Biden is also a geyser of disingenuous platitudes: of “being a president for all Americans,” “restoring decency,” “healing our country,” and so on. Yes – the man who said the Romney campaign would put African Americans back in chains, and the literal father of “Borking”– HE is going to be the restorer of decency. Give me a break. Joe Biden is a bad man.