SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Kevin Michael who wrote (2529)9/12/1998 1:55:00 PM
From: Johannes Pilch  Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 67261
 
>Right thing to do would be to get Clinton's butt out of office for directly coming on TV scorching mad and declaring to the American people "I did not have sexual relations with that woman-- Monica Lewinsky."<

Agreed. Nevertheless we cannot reasonably expect the American people to do the right thing. I think most people who make public comments on this scandal seem to think Americans are generally disposed toward upholding the law on the basis of a group of moral essentials, or something of the sort. I think this untrue. Modern Americans generally do not act from moral discipline, and they certainly do not think in essentials. Americans act almost completely from emotion, and their thinking is (how might I say it?) at best "willy nilly". Clinton understands this, and this is why he cannot possibly be impeached. In the midst of circumstances that would utterly destroy any other mere mortal, Clinton merely need draw on the power of the politician's Holy Grail, namely, to artfully coordinate and implement several public strategies designed to take advantage of the general lack of thought and moral discipline of the American populace. These strategies can differ, and often do, but their basic characteristic is a profoundly cynical public expression of what Clinton has determined the public wants to see.

>The President is fake and everyone knows it, yet he gets a good approval rating because he is slick willy and the economy is good. I suppose you are right, Clinton will not be impeached because of the matter that it involves.<

I think he will not be impeached because of what Clinton has convinced the American public the matter involves. Firstly, Clinton understands that the day of moral imperatives is over. He knows the public tends to eschew holding to principles because oftentimes doing so causes pain, and the public is generally too soft to willingly endure pain. By painting his enemies as right-winged wackos who hate sex, Clinton has won the debate against anyone who would call the public to do what holding to the principle of honesty commands them to do however painful it threatens to be. Secondly, and most importantly, by constantly referring to the right-wingers and the sexual nature of the scandal, he has almost completely obscured the main argument of his enemies-the argument against his lying both to the American people and their courts of law. Where his lying has been publicly addressed, Clintonoids have still referred to the sex, claiming "anyone would lie in court, if they were asked about their private sex life" or "Not a man alive has not lied about his sex life". Of course neither of these is true, but again, the American public is not interested in truth, morality and logic. They are interested primarily in who yells loudest and looks prettiest. Clinton, to my way of thinking, has a soft, pudgy body, crooked teeth, big hair and a nose like a frankfurter. Nevertheless, he is prettier than Kenneth Starr (though Starr is kinda cute in his own cuddly looking way). Therefore Clinton, though he is a certified liar, sexual predator and abuser of the American presidency, is loved; and Starr, though he merely does his job scrupulously according to the law, is publicly despised. In the sixties, America lost its innocence, and in the nineties she became a shameless whore.

>Not even Hustler magazine could have came up with this story line: PRESIDENT GETS IMPEACHED OVER BJ COVERUP. All you can do is laugh about all of this. Whether Clinton gets impeached or not, this scandal has been very damaging and weaking to what was once the most coveted title in the world-- The President of the United States. Now the title is just a big joke.<

Yes. It has indeed lost its luster, and to my mind, is merely a rusty ornament on the warped and rusted hood of the American public. But hey, the economy is good - LOL