An Uncomfortable Admission About Americans
Let me preface this by saying that I’m not defending Bill Clinton when it comes to the whole Monica Lewinsky debacle. If he were my husband…well…he wouldn’t be anymore. I don’t appreciate being lied to, and he lied when he said, “I did not have sex with that woman.” At the same time, I don’t understand why we had any business asking him that question in any sort of official state capacity. He did not take a vow of sexual fidelity to America. That was, as he said, between him, his wife, and his God. Could a man capable of breaking a marriage vow break his oath of office? Sure. But if he had, I think Ken Starr would have found out about it during one of his probing, proctologic searches with a microscope. What I know for sure is that Bush thinks nothing of violating federal law in the form of FISA and he has shown little or no respect for the constitution he swore to uphold. Twice.
Clinton’s big, all-time, newsworthy blunder was sexy. It was titillating. It was exciting. Americans, good descendents of Puritans that we are, could draw ourselves up and wrap ourselves in a cloak of righteous indignation, and then get down and dirty talking about thongs, and cigars, and stains on blue dresses. The conversation was salacious, the jokes deliciously indecent:
What does Bill say to Hillary after sex? Hi Hon, I’m on my way home.
George W. and Dick Cheney are at a press conference, and they tell the reporters that they have the solution to all of the major issues facing America right now. Unfortunately, it involves slaughtering 20,000 innocent brown people and a fat white chick. A reporter looks puzzled and asks, “What’s with the fat white chick?” Cheney turns to Bush and says, “See, I told you they wouldn’t care about the 20,000 brown people.”
My son came home with that last joke. Am I the only one who finds it relevant, but not remotely funny? That’s OK. Here’s more:
What’s the difference between Bill Clinton and the Titanic? We know how many women went down on the Titanic. Tee hee hee hee. Titter, titter, giggle, giggle.
How many women went down with Katrina? No punch line. Just the decidedly unsexy image of poor, black women, children, and men floating facedown in filthy water. No fun at all. The cigar thing sounded harmlessly kinky, but if you find the thought of torturing prisoners arousing, you’re probably not going to admit it in public.
So I’ll make all you Bush supporters a deal. Let’s take a foible of Bush’s that really does compare to Monica. Something funny, a little embarrassing, something that makes you question his capabilities as a leader. Let’s take “Bushisms.” ("The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off." —George W. Bush, second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004.) I’ll lay off the Bushisms if Bush’s supporters will lay off of Monica.
Of course, I’ll still be talking about Iraq, Bin Laden, Katrina, FISA, torture, the national debt that my children will still be paying for when they’re my age, the impossible mess that is No Child Left Behind, and a host of other issues. I will continue to be morally outraged by the lies that have resulted in the deaths of approximately 2,500 soldiers and the maiming of thousands of others. I will continue to demand that we be told why. I will continue to ask what, besides a sharp increase in terrorist recruitment, we have gained in exchange. I will keep on asking when the hell we’re going to define victory in Iraq and when the hell we’re going to get out and how many more lives we are willing to squander in between. I will continue to be more outraged at Bush’s violation of his oath of office than I was at Bill’s violation of his marriage vows.
I’m going to end this rant with a quote from The Great Gatsby. I read it out loud to my class today as we finished our discussion of the novel. Given the Cheney hunting incident, as well as everything I’ve just written about, it resonated with me:
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…” Just replace “Tom and Daisy” with “Dick and Georgie.”
Very well said, from start to finish. And while we're at it, isn't a little
more ethically consistent for many of Clinton's liberal supporters not to
be that concerned about a sexual impropriety (we are liberal,
after all!) than for Bush's Republican supports (the supposedly oh-so
moral) to overlook Bush's lies and the evil consequences they've caused?
There is a comment sweeping the internet that says, "Will somebody give
this jerk a blow job so we can get rid of him." The unfortunate problem you
have is, replace him with whom? The Democrats are falling all over
themselves saying "me to" and remember that you replaced Lyndon Johnson
with Richard Nixon. The unfortunate situation is that you really have no
political opposition in your system.
You are virtually in a one party state where the only difference between
factions is the color of their ties.
JWL
What I find amazing is that there are still Bush supporters. Now please,
you can still be a Republican and be unhappy with one of your own can't
you? I mean, does being a Republican mean that you cannot disagree with
the absolutely shitty job your president is performing? Does being a
Republican mean that you are unable to form an independent thought for
yourself? Because if you look at what is going on in the White House, you
have to realize that this administration is doing indefensible damage to
our country. Good jokes by the way, from both Paula and John-Ward.
Rosebud, I was thinking that exact same thing yesterday. It was one thing
to sport "Bush-Cheney" or "W" on your car in the months leading up to the
election, but doing so now just makes you look ignorant.
Good entry.
I suppose somewhere in here their's a question of Moral Integrity.Do you
suppose.?
Ah, Norman, if America cannot see that lies which lead to the senseless
slaughter of thousands is an issue of moral integrity, we are well and tuly
lost.
Perfect answer, Paula. Some small minds think that morality is all about
sex.
Perhaps their is some confusion between morality and obscenity? Just a
passing thought!
I am wondering why not one commenter to this blog has questioned why this
professed teacher, who is supposed (one would hope)to be teaching students
to think critically, is instead indoctrinating them with her own beliefs
i.e. 'Bush is bad, my beliefs are good'?
April, unless I'm missing something, none of this actually went
into the classroom. The only time the classroom is even mentioned is that
last bit about The Great Gatsby, and my assumption, at least, was
that this quotation came up in the context of understanding that novel, and
reading it again it occurred to Paula--and she shared these thoughts with
us, not her students--that this was similar to the Bush regime. I could be
mistaken, but there's nothing in this post that suggests to me that she's
pushing her beliefs onto her students. Anyway, knowing Paula from her
previous posts, I would be surprised if she was, and probably that
is why not one commenter has questioned her on this point.
Bingo, John. I don't say everything that pops into my head in class. We
read the quote aloud in the context of Fitgerald's message about the
American dream and the atmosphere of the jazz age. Bush never came up in
the discussion. Besides, if my students are thinking critically, they
don't need me to tell them that Bush is bad.
Good answer!