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[Editor's note: Even though Bill Clinton has left the building, we believe that this material is still relevant. It is about values and responsibility as much as it is about Bill Clinton.]
I have had a difficult time figuring out why so many people continue to support this president. I understand the "let's give him the benefit of the doubt" line; but I'm not buying it. Anybody with half a brain can see what is at the other end of these shallow, endless lies. But so many people have just turned their heads and ignored what is so obvious to the rest of us. Why?
I'd like to think that it goes beyond the economy. Maybe it is true that if we were in a recession the country would turn on him in a heartbeat. But I'd like to think that we are not that selfish and self-absorbed. Democrats are misguided, but they are generally no more selfish than the rest of us. I think it is a bit more complicated than that.
Last week I received an e-mail that may help explain my quandry. My baby boomer friend wrote that she proudly voted for Bill Clinton in 1992, and again, somewhat reluctantly, in 1996. She explained with great passion that she had such high hopes for this president. In 1992, she bought into the line that "everything that is supposed to be up... is down," and that George Bush had given us the worst economy in fifty years. She believed that the Democrat candidate felt her pain, and that of the homeless and the suffering. Bill Clinton was "one of us"; he was the personification of our youthful idealism.
My friend was willing to overlook the Gennifer Flowers episode. "He said; she said - who knows?" She didn't care about candidate Clinton's draft status because that happened so long ago. She wasn't paying much attention when he said he did... or did not use pot, and that he maybe did not inhale. And she simply did not know that in 1990 Governor Clinton had promised his constituents that if they re-elected him, he would absolutely serve the full four years of his term. She did not know that the night of the 1990 governor's election he began planning his run for the presidency in 1992.
She admitted that things didn't look so good when the first item on the president's agenda in 1993 was gays in the military. She did not vote for him for that. But later rather than sooner, the economy picked up. The press stopped reporting about the homeless. In 1996, she thought that Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole were being so nasty to him. And Paula Jones? Well, Paula Jones was just the puffy-haired hick from Arkansas... that's how the press had portrayed her.
So when things were going well, my friend just tuned out the politics. But by this time, she had invested a great deal of energy in this man. She had supported him, she had voted for him, she had believed in him. Her mind was made up. It was an emotional thing. Now I understand why it is so much easier to bury your head in the sand than accept the reality. At this stage, accepting the reality would be extremely painful. You made an emotional commitment to this man, not a practical, logical one.
Suppose you make a commitment to a politician because of his stand on the issues, and what he says, and the facts and logic behind it. If he is not consistent, or if you learn that he has lied, then it is easy to revoke your support. But if you make an emotional commitment to a candidate, based primarily on feel-good concepts and emotions, then it is much harder to stop supporting him no matter what he does. You feelings may still be the same, regardless of the facts. Your commitment to your friends and spouse should certainly involve emotions. But your commitment to a candidate should not be about feelings.
There is also the "single issue" excuse. Many women (and some men) support Bill Clinton primarily because of his stand on abortion rights. He said he supported them, and as proof he vetoed the ban on partial-birth abortions that Congress, led by Republicans, passed. It is Bill Clinton against everybody else, and Bill Clinton came through when you really needed him. This one issue makes all the others insignificant. So, many women are committed to this president "come hell or high water." This summer, both hell and high water came rushing in. Only in the deep recesses of their mind do they realize the price they have to pay in return for the president's stand on abortion rights.
The more closely you were involved in Democratic politics, the more emotional energy you were likely to have expended on him. Of course, the closer you were, the more likely you were to see the lies and deceit. But Bill Clinton is an enormously attractive and appealing man; it is easy to overlook that. And as James Carville said, the attacks were about sex and money. This is a war, and the vast right-wing conspiracy was trying to destroy your president. It was time to rally around your man. And rally they did. The more ugly accusations that came out, the stronger they were in supporting him.
And then one day... or in the period of a few weeks, it all came crumbling down. The president had lied; not once, but several times. He had sacrificed his friends for his own selfish reasons; not once, but over and over again. He had hurt his wife and daughter enormously, simply because he was unable to control his juvenile impulses.
And you, too. You were also let down. By your president.
Now, it is easy for me to say that this man is a scoundrel and that I knew it from the beginning. He is, and I did. But I came to that conclusion not because I am on the other side of the political fence. I came to that conclusion because I have believed all along that character matters - more than anything else - including abortion rights. And this man's absence of character is jumps out everywhere. His affair with Gennifer Flowers, his attempts to dodge the draft - and then lying about it, and his hedging on his use of pot were all signs.... signs you chose to ignore. And if he would blatantly lie to the people of his own state, then he would blatantly lie to the people of the country. If he would hurt his family, then he would hurt you. Accept illegal campaign contributions? Without even blinking. If he gets caught, he'll just stall and trash the accuser, just like he has always done. These were obvious signs to me, and to anyone who values character.
But in your mind, character didn't matter. In 1992, and again in 1996, you proclaimed loudly that it does not. "It's the economy, stupid." Oh yeah; that, and abortion rights. That is what mattered to you. That is why, when we looked at Bill Clinton, we saw the same thing. We just weighed its importance differently.
So my lesson to you is that character does matter. If you had looked beyond his smooth, southern style, you would have seen that he was setting you up for a fall. You would have realized that, despite what he was saying, he was not worthy of the emotional energy you had invested in him.
It is not about sex; it is about character.
You might want to remember that for the next time.
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