By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
September 19, 2000
Exactly seven weeks from today the American people are going to choose a new president and a new Congress. It probably is the most important election in America's history. It will decide whether or not we will continue the policies and basic style of Bill Clinton. According to an exuberant Al Gore the day Clinton escaped removal from office by a 50-50 vote in the Senate, Clinton is one of the greatest presidents in American history.
Yet, even during the impeachment almost all Americans, on both sides of the aisle, agreed that Bill Clinton was an immoral liar and their "best president" analysis compared him favorably and almost equally to presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom have a legacy of impeccable honesty.
Al Gore himself doesn't exactly have an impeccable honesty record. In fact, his style of campaigning is remarkably similar to Bill Clinton's style of campaigning and governing. That style is illustrated largely by an outward charm and an inward dishonesty. Sort of like the passionate kiss Al gave Tipper at the Democrat Convention. It was designed to convey a message of love, not simply pretend public sex on stage for the whole world to be titillated by. And, it worked, if we can believe reports that it increased Gore's approval rating among women. Sadly, there are many women today that have only experienced sex, not love, and don't know the difference between them.
However, as recently as nineteen months ago, Bill Clinton barely escaped being removed from office for what Sen. Joseph Lieberman called behavior that "is not just inappropriate. It is immoral. And it is harmful, for it sends a message of what is acceptable behavior to the larger American family, particularly to our children, which is as influential as the negative messages communicated by the entertainment culture."
Lieberman went on to pinpoint the danger to the nation posed by the President's behavior:
"I have had many ... conversations in recent days, and from that I can conclude that many parents feel much as I do, that something very sad and sordid has happened in American life when I cannot watch the news on television with my ten-year-old daughter any more."This is unfortunately familiar territory for America's families in today's anything-goes culture, where sexual promiscuity is too often treated as just another lifestyle choice with little risk of adverse consequences. It is this mindset that has helped to threaten the stability and integrity of the family, which continues to be the most important unit of civilized society, the place where we raise our children and teach them to be responsible citizens, to develop and nurture their personal and moral faculties.
In less than two years this man, a devout man, has reconciled himself so totally to the behavior of an immoral, lying national leader that he is able to quickly adjust his moral outrage and align himself with Al Gore and the Clinton legacy of support for abortion on demand (needed because of the lifestyle choices of many) and accept money from the very entertainment industry that he once scolded.
Lieberman, like all the rest of the Democrats in the Senate and five Republicans, of course voted to keep a man that he himself had called "immoral" and a danger to civilized society. Yet the DEMOCRATS said, as I pointed out in an analysis the day of the impeachment, "that Bill Clinton 'violated the trust of the American people' and deserves the 'condemnation of the American people and the Congress' - but they still want him to remain president.
The DEMOCRATS said two years ago that they believed .his conduct with a subordinate employee was 'reprehensible" and, even though they also said it was nobody else's business if he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky and then lied to a Grand Jury about it, they urged the passage of a censure resolution that contradicted their view it was nobody's business
Two years ago, the American people showed, through their elected representatives in the Senate, that about half of them saw nothing that much wrong in Clinton's behavior - including his lying to a Grand Jury as the nation's chief executive. That undoubtedly is because a similar percentage of the American people are living a similar lifestyle to that of the Clintons. It reminded me of another sobering set of statistics that vividly illustrate the state of America's culture and morals. I wrote:
"About 30% of all pregnancies in America end in an abortion and one third of the live births are to unwed mothers. The abortions and unwed birth total about 51% of all pregnancies. That's about the same percentage of senators who voted to acquit the president.""What's the correlation? It would appear that those who are themselves involved in irresponsible sex can't bring themselves to be critical of the president's irresponsible sex, which in their minds "justified" his lying. These are the folks who tend to say "everyone does it." Quite possibly, with an apparent 50% ratio, "everyone" in their circle of friends IS having irresponsible sex and then lying about it.
"So, how does a 50% liar ratio in our population fit with our system of government, as envisioned by the founding fathers? The Quakers considered licentiousness the greatest bane of good order and good government.
"In his first inaugural address George Washington said, 'The foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality.' In his farewell address, after eight years of guiding the infant republic, George Washington admonished the nation,
'"It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions 'for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."
"In his 1831 trip to America, almost 45 years after Washington's Farewell Address, Alexis de Tocqueville, observed, 'Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America .... America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.'
"And then, we are told by the New York Times, it is Bill Clinton who "is so furious at House Republicans over his impeachment, his advisers say, that he has vowed to mount an all-out offensive to knock off many of his foes and win back the House for Democrats in 2000." TV pundits claim authoritatively that it isn't the Senators who support an immoral, lying president who may be defeated in the year 2000. It will be those Senators who voted to convict an immoral, lying president who will be defeated.
"Has America ceased to be good? If so, can we really expect America to continue to be great?"
The answer is at hand, a mere 19 months after Clinton's acquittal. There are some encouraging signs. Many of our youngest citizens, children of the 1960s generation that espoused sex before marriage, free use of illegal drugs, defiance of laws, including the draft, etc., are rejecting their parents lifestyle and are adopting abstinence from sex before marriage and illegal drugs. Will they vote their convictions in November and reject candidates who support abortion on demand and public lying as a standard?
Will the American people vote to support those who urged a higher standard, voting for impeachment, or will they vote for the lower standard and a continuation of the eight years of Clinton-Gore?
The answer to that question depends on about six votes per precinct nationwide. If only six voters per precinct who believe that this nation is in danger from those who are demanding continued approval of partial birth abortion, forcing the Boy Scouts to abandon their standards, etc., stay home on election day, the balance will be tipped. There will be no majority Congress, in the White House or in the Supreme Court that will vote to uphold the standards set down to maintain free government.
The issue this election day is simple: Have we become so immoral, or perhaps so skeptical, as a nation that we are no longer able to defend freedom?
To Comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
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