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Jewish World Review /Dec. 30,1998 /11 Teves 5759
Mona Charen
The price of virtue
(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) CAN A COUNTRY that gives a known perjurer 70 percent approval ratings be
entirely wholesome?
Maybe. One interpretation was offered by Mark Steyn of the London Spectator
and Andrew Ferguson of the Weekly Standard in the January/February issue of
The American Enterprise magazine. Steyn offered that "the better you know
Clinton, the more you loathe him. That would seem to be a fairly general
rule. And that's the difficulty because the American electorate don't often
get to see him in the raw."
Ferguson agreed. "You have to watch Clinton day in and day out to
understand the depth of his loathsomeness. That is why the Beltway media
turned against Clinton. ... But for most people, politics is not terribly
interesting. ... They just tune in every once in a while. 'Oh, there's the
president with his new initiative about banning deadbeat dads from being
allowed to have guns. That sounds like a good idea.' And then you turn off
again and go about raising your children and doing your work."
Very true. I have liberal friends in the Washington press corps who detest
Bill Clinton and would rejoice if he were removed from office. Steyn and
Ferguson are exactly right that to know him is to despise him. That's why
Clinton's defenders on the House Judiciary Committee went nuclear when Rep.
Lindsey Graham recited chapter and verse of Clinton's embryonic plan to
trash Monica Lewinsky (before the dress)They understood that those facts,
if they were more generally known, would paint a picture not of someone who
is well-intentioned but weak (as most Americans assume Bill Clinton is) but
rather of someone who is rapacious and without mercy.
As Graham documented for the committee, and as Majority Counsel David
Shippers reiterated, Bill Clinton told several aides, including Sidney
Blumenthal and Betty Currie, that Monica was a "stalker." This is
classically known as adding insult to injury. It is also, as William
Rickenbacker once quipped in another context, a "gotterdamerung lie." Oh,
and one more thing, it sounds amazingly similar to what Clinton's agents
said about Paula Jones and Gennifer Flowers and Kathleen Willey ...
Another way to understand the public's tolerance of Bill Clinton's low
character is to assume that Washington has become almost entirely irrelevant
to the lives of most Americans. Karl Zinsmeister, editor of The American
Enterprise, advances this theory. He first reproduces a series of statistics
on key social indicators which seem to suggest that America has turned a
corner culturally and morally.
The illegitimacy rate is trending down slightly for the U.S. population as
a whole, from 47 births per 1,000 women in 1995 to 44 per 1,000 in 1997.
Among blacks, the trend is more dramatically down. The abortion rate is also
down (so much for those who argued that fewer abortions will always mean
more "unwanted" babies). The number of kids ages 15 to 19 who have had
sexual intercourse is down from a high of 55 percent in 1990 to 50 percent
in 1995.
A small change but in the right direction. The same is true for
divorce, which has dropped slightly but steadily since 1980. Welfare rolls
are down, as are crime rates throughout the nation.
In addition to measurable behavioral change, attitudes have undergone a
shift as well. In 1990, 38 percent of Americans thought we were spending too
much on welfare. In 1996, 56 percent thought so. In 1970, 50 percent thought
"a letdown in moral values" was a major cause of the nation's troubles. In
1998, 62 percent thought as much. In 1979, 66 percent of working women
thought quality time mattered more with children than quantity. By 1998, the
percentage who agreed with that statement had dropped to 40.
If Zinsmeister is right that a conservative shift is underway, it is
possible that appropriate judgmentalism is a lagging indicator. People may
be choosing not to act as Bill Clinton does, but they don't yet have the
confidence to judge him harshly. Just as we Americans believe in heaven but
not hell, just as we want all of our children to excel with praise alone and
never rebuke, we want to censure Bill Clinton but not to punish him. In
time, we should learn that morality doesn't come cheap.
The price we pay for
virtue is shame. You can't have one without the
12/28/98: The gift of giving
12/22/98: Party of shame, party of shamelessness
12/18/98: Wag the country
12/16/98: Is this impeachment constitutional?
12/14/98: Republicans find courage
12/09/98: Nappy Hair and other racial slurs
12/07/98: Stranger in a strange land
12/02/98: Dangerous ground
11/30/98: Involuntary fatherhood?
11/24/98: Lies, damned lies, and sex lies
11/18/98: Another victory for cowardice
11/16/98: Separatism plus welfarism equals a dead end
11/10/98: Did conservatism lose campaign '98?
11/06/98: Democrat venality, Republican timidity
11/04/98: Are girls being shortchanged?
11/02/98: Believe the children?
10/28/98: What 'Measure 58' would do
10/26/98: The officers are bailing out
10/20/98: Using Matthew Shepard's murder
10/19/98: The school voucher that saved a family
10/14/98: Are powerful women different?
10/09/98: Can just sex be impeachable?
10/07/98: Repeal Miranda
10/02/98: Understanding the polls
10/01/98: What school texts teach about marriage
9/28/98: Fear of choice
9/23/98: A fork in the road: Bubba's fate and ours
9/18/98: Christianity and the Holocaust
9/16/98: The national dirty joke
9/11/98: Are we in crisis?
9/09/98: Does Burton's sin let Clinton off the hook?
9/07/98: Liar's Poker
9/01/98: One, two, three
8/28/98: Fat and folly
8/25/98: When homework is a dirty word
8/21/98: The unravelling
8/18/98: The wages of dishonesty
8/17/98: Sex, honor and the presidency
8/12/98: Pro-choice extremist
8/10/98: Switch illuminates biology's role
8/05/98: The presumption of innocence and the American way
8/03/98: An American hero
7/29/98: Lock up those who need psychiatric care
7/24/98: Making the military more like us
7/22/98: The 'Net sex hoax... and us
7/20/98: Disappointed by Cosbys
7/15/98: Feelings, not morality, rule
7/10/98: Guns as the solution?
7/8/98: Teacher preacher
7/6/98: The China behind the headlines
7/1/98: What is the First Amendment for?
6/26/98: The Republican city
6/24/98: Poison pen
6/22/98: Clinton: inventing his own reality?
6/16/98: Senator mom?
6/12/98: Wisconsin: a trail blazer?
6/9/98: These girls say no to sex, yes to excellence
6/5/98: Lewinsky's ex-lawyer would feel right at home as Springer guest
6/2/98: English? Si; Republican? No!
5/29/98: The truth about women and work
5/27/98: Romance in the '90s
5/25/98:Taxing smokers for fun and profit
5/19/98: China's friend in the White House
5/15/98: Look out feminists: here comes the true backlash
5/12/98: The war process?
5/8/98: Where's daddy?
5/5/98: The joys of boys
5/1/98: Republicans move on education reform
4/28/98: Reagan was right
4/24/98: The key to Pol Pot
4/21/98: The patriot's channel
4/19/98: Child-care day can't replace mom
4/15/98: Tax time
4/10/98: Armey states obvious, gets clobbered
4/7/98: A nation complacent?
4/1/98: Bill Clinton's African adventure
3/27/98: Understanding Arkansas
3/24/98: Jerry Springer's America
3/20/98: A small step for persecuted minorities
3/17/98: Skeletons in every closet?
3/13/98: Clinton's idea of a fine judge
3/10/98: Better than nothing?
3/6/98: Of fingernails and freedom
3/3/98: Read JWR! :0)
2/27/98: Dumb and Dumber
2/24/98: Reagan reduced poverty more than Clinton
2/20/98: Rally Round the United Nations?
2/17/98: In Denial
2/13/98: Reconsidering Theism
2/10/98: Waiting for the facts?
2/8/98: Cat got the GOP's tongue?
2/2/98: Does America care about immorality?
1/30/98: How to judge Clinton's denials
1/27/98: What If It's Just the Sex?
1/23/98: Bill Clinton, Acting Guilty
1/20/98: Arafat and the Holocaust Museum
1/16/98: Child Care or Feminist Agenda?
1/13/98: What We Really Think of Abortion
1/9/98: The Dead Era of Budget Deficits Rises Again?
1/6/98: "Understandable" Murder and Child Custody
1/2/98: Majoring in Sex
12/30/97: The Spirit of Kwanzaa
12/26/97: Food fights (Games children play)
12/23/97: Does Clinton's race panel listen to facts?
12/19/97: Welcome to the Judgeocracy, where the law school elite overrules majority rule
12/16/97: Do America's Jews support Netanyahu?