George F. Will’s jeremiad drawing equivalencies between President Biden’s purported authoritarianism (e.g., emplacing failed nominees on a “temporary appointment” status) and former president Donald Trump’s catalogue of constitutional insults (both known and not yet known), “An authoritarian is already in the White House” [op-ed, Jan. 4], would be comical if it weren’t so discouraging. And his suggestion that a “supine” Senate majority has acquiesced to these abuses must assume, with tongue in cheek only, that Joe Manchin III (W-Va.) is actually a Democrat.
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All ‘authoritarians’ are not alike
The last thing we plebeians need hectoring about is how equally awful and unsuitable, according to Mr. Will, the presumed Democratic electoral response — i.e., Mr. Biden — is to Mr. Trump’s rampant criminality and oeuvre, and how poorly this bodes for our national future. As P.J. O’Rourke opined about Hillary Clinton’s preferred candidacy to that of Trump: “She’s wrong about absolutely everything, but she’s wrong within normal parameters.”
This could equally be said by a charitably inclined conservative about Mr. Biden. Has Mr. Will really lost sight of the differences between these two men?
Kenneth M. Scheibel Jr., Woodbridge
As a devoted reader of George F. Will, I was surprised at his column about an authoritarian in the White House. Though, as Mr. Will pointed out, President Biden has sidestepped Congress and some laws, he, of course, isn’t the first to do this in frustration when faced with an intransigent Congress — e.g., Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.
However, the unconstitutional actions of former president Donald Trump — putting migrant children in cages and the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021 — don’t compare to the actions of any past president.
Stanley Newman, Bethany Beach, Del.