>The life boats are for the upper class.<
And this is why it is foolish for Americans not to demand impeachment or resignation. Should they allow Clinton to remain in office with merely a "censuring" (which is to do nothing), Americans themselves will have effectively codified your little truism into law, at least where the presidency is concerned. Article II Section 4 of the Constitution will then have been significantly reduced in power, even allowing flagrant abuses of the state and its law. It is better we keep the thing strong enough to utterly condemn flagrant abuse of the law, than make it accommodate such abuse at the hand of a president.
We commit gross error when we require the details of the sins of future presidents, to at least equal those of Richard Nixon. We should instead judge the thing on its essentials. Clinton's sins are at least as equal, and at least as dangerous to our state because the wrongs are essentially the same philosophically. Many of the technical details are vastly different, of course (and the next time this sort of thing happens, the details will also be much different), but we should not minimize the essence of the accusations because of these differences. Unfortunately, this is what we have done thus far, all the while thinking ourselves sophisticated. And the upper classes play to the average American's desire to be thought of as "sophisticated" while they themselves float away on the lifeboats.
I scorned Mr. Nixon simply because he indirectly attempted to harm the American system. But Mr. Nixon cherished the Office of the Presidency, and did his wrongs expressly to hold on to that office. With him it was political scheming gone awry (this is not to excuse Nixon, of course). Mr. Clinton did his wrongs not merely to hold onto office (though he has now done wrong to hold on), but purely to gratify his baser physical instincts. He has abused the system and assaulted the state, using the power of high office, including that of the American Presidency and its attendant offices, purely to gratify his personal vile instincts. We are promoting a cynical monarchy here, where one man can toy with the entire legal system for personal gain, while everyone powerlessly looks on. This is precisely what our Founding Fathers wanted to protect against.
Millions now in America have lost faith in the system. Millions more are in the process of losing faith. Someone here put it more succinctly when they said something to the effect of 'I don't care anymore. I know that the best way to get ahead is to lie, cheat and steal. The children? Screw them!'
It is a dreadful thing when a president violates public trust. |
