Eleven months ago, I pre-empted a planned commentary to talk about the president’s sexual indiscretions. I wasn’t happy about that, but no one seemed able to focus on anything else that week. Since then, I’ve tried to speak about issues that really matter as the opportunities and the days of our lives slip away while we gawk at the news on tee vee.
Much as we would have liked, we have none of us been able to make this thing go away and this week we are all again frozen in our tracks as we watch to see whether the House of Representatives votes for impeachment. The debate begins today, even as you listen to this.
Let me say this: I am not a fan of Bill Clinton. Whatever kind thoughts I had for the man turned to acid in 1992 when he chose to execute a brain-damaged man rather than risk right-wing backlash in the primaries.
Yes, I would like to see Bill Clinton prosecuted when he leaves office but lying about a sexual affair is the least of the charges. I’d like to see him stand trial for signing NAFTA, for shredding welfare. I’d like to see him answer to the charge of selling out to the oil companies on global warming and to the chemical companies on ozone depletion. And there’s the matter of the world’s largest toxic waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio. I remember the day in 1992 when he and Al Gore got off their bus and said if they were elected, that incinerator would never be opened. They were elected, it was opened, it’s still burning today.
So I have no love or respect for Bill Clinton. My concern for the debate on in the capitol today has nothing to do with Bill Clinton. I’m worried about what’s happening to our country.
Sometimes I read the newspaper stories about Russia and I worry. I worry that a country with nuclear weapons is run by crackpots like Boris Yeltsin and real madmen like Vladimir Zhirinovsky are lurking in the shadows. I look at those stories about Russian society and crime and the economy spinning out of control and I think again about those nuclear weapons. And yet, bearing all that in mind, I am less worried about Moscow than I am about Washington.
In this hour, the pendulum of politics is swinging out of control in America. The core of the Republican Party has been seized by a group of bilious barbarians and the average Republican congressman is scared that voting against impeachment will cause him to be eviscerated by his own party in the next election.
So because our elected representatives are cowards, which we knew anyway, we may have to endure this impeachment process, and who knows what will come of that, but there will be retribution of some kind or other, and retribution has a way of spawning retribution. Where will it all end?
Eleven months ago I worried about what would be the result of this sad affair. I predicted then that we would continue to lose faith in our system of government, that the number of active voters will drop again and democracy will continue to die from the bottom up, that more and more citizens will become bitter and disillusioned. We’ve all become more disillusioned in the past eleven months, perhaps the worst is still to come.
This coming week brings the longest nights of the year in our calendar and perhaps in our civic discourse. Perhaps the best we can do is keep faith and wait for return of the light.
What’s Happening to Us?
Eleven months ago, I pre-empted a planned commentary to talk about the president’s sexual indiscretions. I wasn’t happy about that, but no one seemed able to focus on anything else that week. Since then, I’ve tried to speak about issues that really matter as the opportunities and the days of our lives slip away while we gawk at the news on tee vee.
Much as we would have liked, we have none of us been able to make this thing go away and this week we are all again frozen in our tracks as we watch to see whether the House of Representatives votes for impeachment. The debate begins today, even as you listen to this.
Let me say this: I am not a fan of Bill Clinton. Whatever kind thoughts I had for the man turned to acid in 1992 when he chose to execute a brain-damaged man rather than risk right-wing backlash in the primaries.
Yes, I would like to see Bill Clinton prosecuted when he leaves office but lying about a sexual affair is the least of the charges. I’d like to see him stand trial for signing NAFTA, for shredding welfare. I’d like to see him answer to the charge of selling out to the oil companies on global warming and to the chemical companies on ozone depletion. And there’s the matter of the world’s largest toxic waste incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio. I remember the day in 1992 when he and Al Gore got off their bus and said if they were elected, that incinerator would never be opened. They were elected, it was opened, it’s still burning today.
So I have no love or respect for Bill Clinton. My concern for the debate on in the capitol today has nothing to do with Bill Clinton. I’m worried about what’s happening to our country.
Sometimes I read the newspaper stories about Russia and I worry. I worry that a country with nuclear weapons is run by crackpots like Boris Yeltsin and real madmen like Vladimir Zhirinovsky are lurking in the shadows. I look at those stories about Russian society and crime and the economy spinning out of control and I think again about those nuclear weapons. And yet, bearing all that in mind, I am less worried about Moscow than I am about Washington.
In this hour, the pendulum of politics is swinging out of control in America. The core of the Republican Party has been seized by a group of bilious barbarians and the average Republican congressman is scared that voting against impeachment will cause him to be eviscerated by his own party in the next election.
So because our elected representatives are cowards, which we knew anyway, we may have to endure this impeachment process, and who knows what will come of that, but there will be retribution of some kind or other, and retribution has a way of spawning retribution. Where will it all end?
Eleven months ago I worried about what would be the result of this sad affair. I predicted then that we would continue to lose faith in our system of government, that the number of active voters will drop again and democracy will continue to die from the bottom up, that more and more citizens will become bitter and disillusioned. We’ve all become more disillusioned in the past eleven months, perhaps the worst is still to come.
This coming week brings the longest nights of the year in our calendar and perhaps in our civic discourse. Perhaps the best we can do is keep faith and wait for return of the light.