Dr. Nathan R. Shrader serves as Associate Professor of Politics and Co-Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at New England College in Henniker. He can be reached at nshrader@nec.edu.

President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, before his term expires is the least surprising thing that has happened in American politics this year. What am I saying? It could be the least surprising thing to happen in American politics this decade. However, none of that has stopped the MAGA Republicans along with some in the media and a few people in Democratic Party officialdom from resorting to the time-honored, exhausting false equivalency schtick to condemn the elder Biden.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I am not defending Hunter Biden and his actions. However, I am defending President Biden’s decision to pardon his son for several reasons. First, the incoming administration, led by a convicted felon who has been found liable for sexual assault, has promised to seek revenge on his enemies including the Biden family. No self-respecting father who loves his son would leave him in limbo, waiting for the weaponized Trump governmental agencies to use Hunter as a pawn in the MAGA Retribution Tour.

Second, President Biden’s actions are completely constitutional and within the confines of the law. If people don’t like this, they ought to start working to amend the Constitution to reform or repeal the pardon powers. Likewise, it is also an exercise in absurdity to hear comments from some who say, “now this gives Trump the license to abuse his own power.” I hate to break to those folks, but Trump was going abuse said power regardless of what Joe Biden did or didn’t do regarding his son. Trump has been telling us this very plainly for months, yet some simply refuse to acknowledge the reality of the situation.

Two things can be true at once. On the one hand, Joe Biden pardoning Hunter Biden because he fears retribution from near-certain Trump administration lawfare is perfectly defensible. On the other hand, the idea of Trump potentially pardoning the dangerous radicals who participated in and led the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol, for example, would not be defensible or justifiable, much like his reckless pardons of Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and others.

The American people need to acknowledge the nuance of the situation. The Hunter pardon and the likely pardon of the anti-American insurrections are not comparable. It’s the equivalent of comparing apples to bowling balls. Unfortunately, this is the kind of analogy that passes for serious political discourse in America at the present time. Both “sides” are guilty because that is the most simplistic narrative.

President Biden said in a statement, “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

I understand the fad in politics right now is to attack President Biden. He’s unpopular, he’s aged, and he’s in his final several weeks in office, making him a convenient punching bag for the press, MAGA, and even some Democrats who want to pin all their woes on his presidency. Despite this, Biden’s statement is completely accurate. The trouble facing President Biden is that he’s counting on people to be “reasonable,” and that feels like a lost cause given the results of the November election and the way we collectively behave in politics today.

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At the end of the day, President Biden is an honorable man with a heart who deeply loves his family, including his flawed son so much that he is willing to leap into the political volcano of manufactured outrage to shield him. Former President Barack Obama once said that Joe Biden is “A good a man as God ever created.” Perhaps it should be said that he’s also a good a father as ever created as well.