Bill Clinton: Can We Allow This Warped Man To Remain in Office?
Manchester Union Leader
October 6, 1998 Linda Bowles
FOR PERSPECTIVE, LET'S take a moment to listen to the brief comments of two men who have been quiet about the Bill Clinton follies -- until now.
Former President Jimmy Carter, speaking to students at Emory University, said, "As one of the very few leaders who have served in the White House, I have deplored and been deeply embarrassed by what has occurred there." He added, "My own opinion is that the President has not been truthful in the deposition given in the Paula Jones case or in the interrogation by the grand jury."
Former President George Bush, in a televised interview on NBC, said, "This office is strong. It's resilient." Then, with pure anguish registered on his face and deep sadness in his voice, he slowly added, "But I'm afraid, for now, it's been diminished."
The truth is unavoidable. The essential fact we must accept and deal with is that Bill Clinton has dishonored his office, undermined the rule of law, misused his authority and committed felonies. And the essential question we dare not lose sight of is: can we, without doing further injury to our country, allow this reckless and warped man to remain in office?
Clinton's testimony before the grand jury was a "tour de farce." It was a carefully calculated four-hour deception. According to one report, he was asked 286 questions and had memory lapses in answering 123 of them. One of the few things he didn't forget or lie about was his name.
And yet, this shameless charade gave him a boost with his apologists. One gets the impression many Americans believe Clinton is being treated unfairly, that he is somehow a victim. They think he deserves to be left alone now that he has confessed.
The problem with that line of thinking is that Clinton has not confessed.
In January of 1998, our President wagged his finger at us and lied: "Listen to me! I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."
He is still telling this same lie. When testifying before the grand jury, he placed his hand on the Bible and swore to tell the whole truth, then proceeded to say he did not have "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky.
We have in view a degenerated man who sees the whole of life as a game, and words as tools for manipulating others.
What is the genesis of such a man? In her essay, "The Age of Envy," Ayn Rand gives us a clue. She writes of " ... the child who lies too often and gets away with it. ... He learns, in effect, that he can get whatever he wants not by observing facts, but by inventing them ... by manipulating the adults."
Rand describes how this child learns that "reality is the enemy ... that the truth would defeat him ... "When he becomes a man, he feels " ... a sneaky sense of triumph ... he is superior since he can deceive anyone ... his means of survival is his ability to manipulate others."
It is disheartening that so many Americans aren't outraged that the President of the United States committed adultery with an intern in the Oval Office.
It is almost too much to bear that so many Americans are either so gullible they don't know they are being manipulated or so morally jaded they think Clinton is a political genius for being such a great liar.
We are reaping the bitter fruit of decades of pathic tolerance for all that is wrong in ourselves and others.
The words from our pulpits are weak and worldly, and those from our philosophers are garbled and earth-bound.
We have abandoned our children to daily, deadly doses of amorality and vulgarity pumped up and glorified by television sitcoms and the movies. We have given up our children to labor-bossed government schools, where God is persona non grata and any word of Him is censored.
Over time, we have become wobbly about the virtue of distinguishing right from wrong. It is the kind of wobbliness that has preceded the fall of great nations.
A letter to the editor of "World", a weekly news magazine, reminded me of lines from "An Essay on Man," written by Alexander Pope:
Sin is a monster of awful mien,
That to be hated needs but to be seen,
But seen too oft, familiar with face,
First we endure,
Then pity,
Then embrace.
There is a rising tide of decadence in America and Bill Clinton has brought us face to face with the awful reality of it.
Perhaps, mysteriously, there is a blessing in all of this. Perhaps we have been shaken out of our lethargy in time to save our children and our country.
-- Linda Bowles is a syndicated columnist. Write to her in care of Creators Syndicate, Inc., 5777 West Century Blvd., No. 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Linda Bowles, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
Manchester Union Leader
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