Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Disillusionment
Author: Eric Kidd Posted: 12/22/1998; 10:51:54 AM Topic: DaveNet comments Msg #: 1618 (In response to 1607) Prev/Next: 1617 / 1619
I heard a pointed comment the other day. After Jesse Ventura won the gubernatorial race, one reporter wrote:"The people are telling policitions: 'If you act like professional wrestlers, we'll *elect* professional wrestlers.'"
This made me sit down and think for a while. It's quite clear that the President of the United States is a sleeze; why doesn't the public join the Republicans in angrily calling for his impeachment?
After talking with people on the streets, I think the public's viewpoint is not unreasonable. Nobody really wants to side with Clinton, except those folks who say, "Well, he's not a very good man, but snooping around in people's private lives like that just isn't fair." And nobody but the staunchest of conservatives wants to side with the Republicans in Congress.
You see, everyone realizes that Congress is full of adulters, liars and people just a little too concerned with practical politics at the expense of principle. Didn't Henry Hyde, chairman of the committee which debated Clinton's impeachment, lie to the public about his affairs just this fall? Granted, he didn't commit perjury, but as a member of the public, I think that's a poor defense. (Try it at home: "Sure, Mom, I lied to you--but not to a jury. So everything's OK.") Didn't Ted Kennedy drive off a bridge with a mistress, swim to shore while she drowned, and not call the police until the next morning? Didn't Newt Gingrich claim that blowjobs were not sex long before Clinton did?
So the public's not fooled by all those speeches on the floor. They don't like either side of the aisle very much, and they certainly don't see the current situation the way the Republicans do--a wise and noble group of Congressmen reluctantly removing an unfit president from office for having gone one step too far. Instead, it looks like a bunch of lying, adulterous hypocrites attacking one of their own.
Personally, I don't think Clinton's fit to be president. I think that he's a good man with some pretty appalling flaws (I certainly have my own), and that he needs to grow up. I wish he hadn't been elected to do that growing up while President of our nation, but that's the choice the public made.
Livingston, the Republican Speaker of the House, came to much the same conclusion. He looked at Clinton's actions, and decided that Clinton should resign. Then he looked as his personal life, and decided that he had done many of the same things himself. So now, he's resigning as Speaker and will leave the House before his term is up. Such moral consistency requires a great amount of courage, and I admire him tremendously for it.
So, yeah--impeach Clinton for his short-comings. But let's not pretend that any of Congress is much better. If we do, the public will continue to exercise its good sense and start electing more professional wrestlers. =)
There are responses to this message:
This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:46:54 PM.
© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.