Congress: Give Back Our Country
Right Wing 'Gotcha' Politics
President Bill Clinton
Our country is in trouble -- and it's not because of the manufactured attack on the president variously referred to by the media as the Clinton Scandal, the White House Crisis or the (Monica) Lewinsky Affair.
Our country is in trouble -- not because President Clinton had an affair and lied about it, and not because Republicans and Democrats are at loggerheads over the whole question of impeachment.
Our country is in trouble -- because too many Americans have been hoodwinked by anti-Clinton, anti-Democratic extremists who are willing to discard the American way for their own agenda.
Right-wing Conspiracy
Ordinary citizens -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- understand as Hillary Clinton does, that the so-called scandal is nothing more than a politically inspired right-wing conspiracy to change the results of the presidential election. But the conspiracy does not involve the majority of honest, patriotic, right-thinking Republicans.
The idea was clearly developed with the presidential campaign of George Bush. Bush and his advisers, aware that Clinton is part of a generation that was brought up amid the flower people, free love, drugs and the Vietnam War, decided they could gain votes by attacking Clinton's character.
Right-wingers were devastated by Bush's defeat. They stepped up their rhetoric against Clinton and were obviously successful in promoting their strategy with Bob Dole. Dole fell for it hook, line and sinker, and made it the hallmark of his campaign.
Dole's campaign inspired right-wing efforts to investigate every aspect of Clinton's life, beginning in Arkansas, when Clinton was governor. People started coming out of the woodwork to provide the Republican Party with gossip, rumors or anything that might be used against Clinton.
They Got Lucky
They got lucky! Not surprisingly, they found something they could pursue relentlessly without seeming to be holier-than-thou. After all, sex outside of marriage is wrong, isn't it?
Right-wing extremists and some holier-than-thou Democrats are scratching their heads, however, wondering why average Americans show up in the polls in sympathy with Clinton. They don't understand that their all-out attack on a trumped up issue -- even if it is true -- is fundamentally unfair. It's overkill in the extreme and, more importantly, does not rise to the level of impeachment. Not even close.
Voters Had Enough!
More and more individuals and groups have had enough! They stood by for a while because it is not possible to defend some of Clinton's conduct. But it's now clear that Ken Starr took the issue to political extremes, and that the Republican leadership in Congress is trying to make political hay of private matters.
Each of us know that a well-funded 4- or 5-year investigation of our lives could easily come up with at least one transgression that would "impeach" us.
Right-thinking Americans everywhere would do well to demand that Congress drop any impeachment inquiry and give us back our country!
I wrote this column as a "My View" for The Hour newspaper of Norwalk, Conn., on Oct. 10, 1998. I now write my views on a wide variety of topics on HubPages.
