By Peter Lemiska

According to one recent survey, 53% of Americans now believe that Biden family members were paid by foreign nationals to influence policy decisions. That’s called bribery. It’s an impeachable offense under the Constitution, and if those respondents are right — if Joe Biden has been selling out our country for personal gain — it’s the biggest scandal in our history. It would be tantamount to treason by an American president.

It was simply overwhelming evidence, together with innate common sense, that convinced them. Many are now calling for immediate impeachment proceedings, while others are taking a more measured approach, demanding that the allegations at least be thoroughly investigated.

Yet still others, a shrinking minority, refuse to acknowledge what is so obvious to everyone else. Influence peddling? Quid pro quo? Bribery? Not honest Joe! Those loyal followers generally fall into one of two categories.

Either they’re hopelessly obtuse, close-minded, committed ideologues who buy into their party’s new radical agenda wherever it takes them, no matter how divisive and destructive it may be. They’re dye-hard progressives who would sooner cut off a right arm than sit through a conservative news show or listen to any opinions that contradict the party line. They’re obsessed with destroying Donald Trump and are blinded to blatant misconduct in their own party.

Or they, themselves, are the propagandists, the liars, the hypocrites — the abettors. They don’t care if Joe Biden is compromised and corrupt as the day is long. They’re willing to sell their souls to protect him and promote his agenda.

They are the 51 former intelligence “professionals” who lied to the country, falsely claiming that Hunter’s laptop was a product of Russian disinformation. They’re the liberal news media that claim to report all the news that’s fit to print and sanctimoniously proclaim that democracy dies in darkness — the same media that suppressed any and all news associated with the Biden scandal. And they are the devious Democrat politicians who try to pin everything on Hunter. Politicians like Jamie Raskin, who continue to argue that “President Biden was not involved in his son’s business dealings.” Or the ones like Dan Goldman, who expect the public to believe that, even if Joe Biden did participate in Hunter’s business conversations, he was just there to discuss the weather.

They’ve all closed their eyes to Hunter’s emails referencing a cut for the “big guy” and his texts incriminating his father. They refuse to listen to the sworn testimony of credible IRS whistleblowers telling of DOJ efforts to quash their investigation when it began to focus on the president. They have no interest in the testimony of former business associates explicitly detailing Joe’s participation. And they categorically reject the money trail established by Jim Comer’s investigation and all the other incriminating evidence. To them, there is no smoking gun. There will never be one. If Comer were to present them with a personal check, payable to Joe Biden, and signed by Xi Jinping, they’d find some way to dismiss it.

But in fact, there’s no need to show any money going directly into Joe’s pocket. The criminal code for bribery applies to any public official who “accepts or receives anything of value personally or for any other person or entity.” That would include Biden’s family members.

The evidence of Joe Biden’s corruption is infinitely stronger than the contrived evidence used to impeach his predecessor. If proven, Biden’s exchange of geopolitical favors for personal gain would be abhorrent, and the potential impact on our country could be catastrophic. For the good of the country, congressional Republicans must press forward with public hearings.

They’ll never have the unanimous support of the country, but as more information is revealed about this scandal, maybe it will expose more of those collusive liars — the abettors. Maybe it will even enlighten some of those uninformed ideologues. Perhaps it may even help restore some of the reason and common sense they surrendered in exchanged for party loyalty.