WASHINGTON — I do not mean to be melodramatic, but as I think about Hunter and Joe Biden’s problems with the law, it seems to me that we are facing a national tragedy. The president has a son who has been out of his depth for years. Hunter tried to please his father. On that, we all agree. He brought in millions of dollars from dubious sources. Hunter was on the boards of high-powered foreign corporations with worldwide reach. Then the pictures began appearing in the New York Post: Hunter with his pants open, Hunter unshaven and smoking what look like contraband substances of some sort, Hunter sleeping blissfully, Hunter referring to his father as the “Big Guy” and the “brand.” Hunter should be happy. His father is the president of the United States. If his father were anything less, Hunter would be in jail.

How exactly Joe got to be president of the United States is subject to dispute. Yet he is president of the United States, and so we are stuck with him over the months ahead and maybe even over the years ahead. Let us make the best of it, but what if his son is found guilty? Moreover, what if Joe has been involved in shady businesses, too? I cannot think of a president — not Richard Nixon, not Bill Clinton, not even Warren Gamaliel Harding — with greater legal exposure than Joe, and it is all because he wanted to stand by his son. Joe once said that Hunter was the smartest guy he had ever known. Possibly he is. But then, Joe’s circle of friends is not that wide, and now the walls are closing in on the Bidens.

Can you imagine if Hunter ends up going to jail? If he does, he will have to clean up his act. There will be no more sleeping on the floor. No more smoking a joint in bed. Very few calls from the “Big Guy.” He will not be frequenting the company of strippers as he was in photographs published in the New York Post a week or so ago.

Sociologists tell us that conservatives, when polled, usually are happier than liberals. I found this finding questionable, and I offer the Bidens as my idea of a typical happy family of liberals. Joe is always joking, even under stressful circumstances. Jill is always pleasant and jolly, and even Hunter has his joyful moments. His photographs with the joint in bed particularly come to mind. But maybe the Bidens are the exception. Maybe Hillary typifies the average liberal, or Elizabeth Warren, or the average sufferer from road rage.

Recently, I undertook a study of who might be happier, conservatives or liberals, and to my surprise, I discovered that within the scholarly community, conservatives were happier.

Anne Hendershott summed up the findings when she wrote: “More than five decades of social psychological data have demonstrated that conservatives report greater levels of happiness and emotional health than liberals. All of this has been so well documented that, for the most part, modern social scientists have given up trying to dismiss the data and have instead tried to explain why.”

Hendershott concluded, “The reality is that true happiness, and a truly satisfying life, comes from caring for others — being physically present to them. Conservatives know that marriage and family life make one happy.” Liberals have forgotten this if they ever learned it.

I suppose Joe Biden’s loyalty to Hunter started out as admirable, but it quickly devolved into what seemed like corruption. If it was not corruption for the president, it surely was corruption for Hunter. Now what lies ahead for both of them is unknown, but it does not look good. Not for the Big Guy or the Little Guy. As I have said, this is a national tragedy.

Glory to Ukraine!

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