Friday, October 2, 1998
Political leaders persecute president for personal gain
CLINTON: Americans more concerned with public, not private
affairs
By Solomon Matsas
John Strelow’s article "Clinton’s evasion of scandal breaches
public trust" (Viewpoint, Sept. 28-Oct. 1, 1998) takes a simplistic
measurement of how the American people judge the very important
issue of character in leadership.
So where are we all now, a few weeks after our country’s leader
has admitted to lying about an illicit affair? The truth cannot be
glossed over, not with diabolical politics, single-minded
perspectives or misplaced sentiment.
The president did owe everyone an apology, at the very least,
and particularly to those who steadfastly held out the unlikely
possibility that he was to be taken for his word.
Therefore, as anyone who recognizes the complexity of this
national soap opera and media mega-event, I have felt many
different feelings about each aspect of this mutual debacle,
including deep disappointment in Clinton regarding his personal
judgment and conduct.
But I do accept his apology. I understand why he lied. And I do
feel that he is sincerely, excruciatingly remorseful for all that
his actions have caused, even though it was others who chose, for
their own sinister reasons, to make his private matters public.
Yet, in stating the painfully obvious, it is perhaps less
obvious to some that people who cast their stones at this point do
so with self-damning aim. Many in Congress are now casting the
"hypocrite’s stone" in this sad affair, as the fundamentally evil
politics of the accusers, I submit, remain far more malevolent than
the "crime" of the accused.
As an added twist of lurid logic, and as politically incorrect
as it may be to mention, the president’s tireless right-wing
attackers and critics are largely Christian by stated faith. It is
easy to do the simple math of hypocrisy from this fact alone. These
strident Clinton critics are vocal followers of Jesus, so they must
believe in the teachings of the Gospel, teachings which require, as
the wise prophet from Bethlehem often reminded his followers,
forgiveness – born of faith in our Creator’s judgement.
To witness these bloodthirsty Clinton-haters now lapping up the
ruinous carnage of their incessant scavenger hunting strikes me as
the most repulsive of all this travesty’s ironies.
I would also submit that these politically inspired acts of
voyeuristic violation and boorish intrusion into consenting adults’
private actions are all far greater "sins" than the president’s
lapses of discretion and his own destructive personal vanity.
In addition to predictably overplaying their hand, Clinton’s
enemies, wielding their largely political crusade as a clumsy,
blindly righteous club, have also been quizzically duplicitous in
their efforts.
Throughout this crass spectacle, they have openly attacked this
president with undisguised vengeance, yet all the while claiming
virtuous love of constitutional principle or the sanctity of law as
their driving standards.
Most of the thinking public do not seem to believe these
professed higher motives, just as they don’t believe the stated
motives of many of this bad B-movie’s bit players, particularly the
disingenuous "self-protection" assertions by America’s favorite
friend, Linda Tripp.
This is precisely and thankfully why most Americans of all
perspectives and backgrounds, representing the saving grace of
common wisdom in these hopelessly soiled matters, seem to have put
this chapter of cheap aspirations in perspective.
They have done this in one major way: by readily accepting the
president’s contrition as offered. As all the polls inarguably
show, most Americans just want Clinton to return to the issues that
involve the job he was hired to perform.
Most Americans, the Pat Robertson clan aside, do have genuine
mercy and understanding in their hearts and minds, and do believe
that we all somehow fall short of perfection in the broader sense.
Most people, perhaps not even consciously, maintain inwardly some
sense of humility based on that standard of human fallibility.
William Jefferson Clinton has erred on many fronts, both as a
human and president, as the facts now support. Yet his
self-centered indulgence seems a narrower personal failure. Compare
Clinton’s failure to the collectively failed motive of coldly
partisan vindictiveness orchestrated as an obscenely expensive,
four-year tag team campaign of hatred and visceral assault.
The various conservative leaders, who too often are Republicans
before they are Americans, continue their transparent effort to
soundly exploit a low blow advantage that is unprecedented even in
the broken glass back alleys of American political hatchet
jobs.
These ignoble ideals of sweet Watergate revenge have kept
Clinton’s enemies gleefully busy these past few horrible months,
even as he apparently has, by his own imprudent actions,
facilitated their amoral skull-duggery.
Nevertheless, do Clinton’s myopic enemies really think his total
annihilation is a higher priority than the president’s unhampered
ability to lead a nation confronted with the critical global issues
of the day?
The Clinton-haters apparently do think so, and will not rest now
that some accountability of events has been offered from the White
House. While our country’s scandal-weary populous looks to mend and
recover from this political migraine, the president’s rivals will
only be emboldened by their sense of imagined triumph. This is an
insane result to most of us who continue to wonder why both sides
in this unholy war brought us all along for the nauseating
ride.
Ultimately, we are all losers, now and in the future, as a
result of the self-serving zeal of a determined few.
Welcome to your victory, Judge Starr.Matsas is a Student Affairs
staff member.
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board