Bill Clinton: The Agonizing Reappraisal

Friends, Americans, countrymen!  
Lend me your ears!  

I come not to merely bury William Jefferson Clinton but to drive a stake through his craven heart, chop off his diseased head, fill his lying mouth with garlic, and bury the pieces in separate crossroads.

And if you think this is coming from a traditional anti-Clinton angle, guess again, Trump chump.

I’m progressive by default, conservative by nature.  I didn’t move, the thrice-cursed GOP moved, and what they now refer to as the radical left or progressive liberalism is what used to be called “Eisenhower Republicans” back when conservatives held an iota of integrity, a shred of dignity, an ounce of compassion, a hint of civic duty.

So you fuckwits on the right can shuffle off and die for all I care.  

This message is for my friends and allies in the progressive camp, of which a number are Democrats.

Folks, the time has come to publicly, formally, and officially dump Bill Clinton on the ash heap of history.

Alas, by extension this means assigning Hillary to Coventry as well; so be it.  Lay down with pigs, get up smelling like pig shit.

Hillary Clinton is indeed blameless of the multitude of crimes, sins, and shortcomings the far right attempted to hang on her -- investigated and exonerated numerous times by her political enemies -- but if she wanted a public career she should have walked away from Bill Clinton decades ago.

She’s got the stink ingrained on her now, and not just the stink but toxic radioactive mold as well.

She can still be a help backstage, mentoring young candidates, offering valuable insight and advice but her public career is over, her time is done.

Period.
Full stop.

If that pisses you off, direct your ire at the appropriate target:  William Jefferson Clinton.

This fuckwit screwed the country over by not keeping his dick in his pants when he knew his political enemies were actively gunning for him.

Consider how badly screwed up that is:
Imagine driving down the highway a mile or two over the speed limit when you see a police cruiser pull up behind you.

Do you:
(1) Drop down to the speed limit, or
(2) go faster and start zigzagging in and out of lanes without signaling?

It’s painfully clear William Jefferson Clinton suffers from a narcissistic personality disorder on par with Deplorable Donnie; the difference is Slick Willie could hide it better.

(This is doubtlessly due to their different class backgrounds:  Clinton grew up lower middle class and hence acutely aware of his precarious social status; Donnie grew up with a silver service set shoved in his mouth and an I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude of entitlement coupled with a complete lack of empathy and introspection.)

Clinton possessed enough political savvy to know that if he wanted to benefit from public office he needed to -- in a paraphrase from Full Metal Jacket --  “afford the voters with the common courtesy of a reacharound.”

When he kept this in mind, he and Hilary managed to do some appreciable good for the country and their party.

But “doing good” does no good if you throw away your political capital by giving opponents the opportunity to undo what you did.

Knowing his enemies were gunning for him, knowing what was at stake for himself, his family, his friends and allies, his party, his state, and eventually the country as a whole, William Jefferson Clinton recklessly engaged in conduct that exposed him and others to needless risk and opposition even if such conduct was consensual.

THIS IS THE SIGN OF A PROFOUNDLY DISTURBED PERSONALITY.

No apologies, no sweet talking, no circumlocutions, no mansplaining:  A profoundly disturbed personality.

…and one we as a nation and as progressive must walk away from forever.

Painful Truth #1:
William Jefferson Clinton committed perjury and Congress would have been negligent to not impeach him.

Period.
Full stop.

He should have resigned long before that.

The Democratic Party should have made him step down.

It would have ended the feverish anti-Clinton sentiment and made Al Gore the seated president in 2000 against GWBush — and doubtlessly given him the edge politically and morally in that contest.

Imagine for a moment how different the world would be on September 12, 2001 if American made a more proportional international law enforcement response to Al-Q’aeda as the criminal gang they were rather than elevate to Nazi-level quasi-statehood in order to launch the GOP’s long lusted after “war forevermore” that Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about.

Imaging achieving the same real, practical goals without destroying three nations -- Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United States -- in the process.

Imagine blocking far right efforts to deregulate banks, industry, and commerce in order to mercilessly prey on consumers, possibly preventing the housing collapse and stock market crash of 2008, or slowing the rapid out of control spiral of pollution and climate change.

We lost all that in no small part because William Jefferson Clinton, for God knows what perverse reason, refused to say he didn’t have sexual relations with Paula Jones.

Remember, what kicked off the Clinton fiasco was Jones being listed in a published article among women William Jefferson Clinton had sexual relations with, or whom he had “approached” (groped) for sexual relations.

Jones said said she went up to Clinton’s room, he dropped his trousers and asked for sex, and she fled.

In her lawsuit against those who published the article, Jones wanted Clinton to testify he had not had sex with her.

Now, a smart politician would never have gotten in such a position to begin with, but even a politician dumb enough to get caught with his pants literally down could still escape the situation by saying:  “My recollection of meeting Ms Jones is markedly different from hers, but I will confirm 100% that I did not have sexual relations with her, that anybody who says we did is a liar, and I hope she wins her lawsuit against those who defamed her.”

And boom! -- it’s over, there’s nowhere to go with that story.

But instead Clinton denied meeting her and refused to sign an affidavit much less testify.  Jones expanded her suit to include him.

The Supreme Court ruled he could be sued in a civil case while serving as president.  Again, a savvy politician would simply refuse to answer the suit, claiming legal principle.  The maximum default judgment at that time capped at $85,000 – a drop in the bucket compared to his subsequent legal bills -- and the matter would be closed.

Instead, Clinton fought.

Evidence of other affairs -- most notably Monica Lewinsky’s infamous stained dress -- came to light. He was questioned by Jones’ lawyers on this, he lied under oath, he got others to lie under oath, it was proven he did so.

Perjury:  Case closed.

(Sidebar A:  The end should have been “It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is”.  Holy shit, that’s as despicably sleazy a move as anything Deplorable Donnie has pulled, and the Democrats should have kicked Slick Willie to the curb then and there. Fortunately, they seem to have learned from this mistake.  Al Franken was a capable senator with a bright [and possibly even presidential] future ahead of him, but when he was caught inappropriately clowning around with a fellow performer, he resigned and the Democratic Party endorsed this as the appropriate response.  The result?  That avenue of inquiry has been forever blocked off, there’s nowhere for the GOP to go with it.  Franken continues to aid and advise the Democratic party behind the scenes, but he’s removed as a lightning rod.)

(Sidebar B: Further proof of Clinton’s profoundly disturbed personality is that (1) after publicly confessing in 1992 to an affair while governor and (2) promising never to do it again, and (3) knowing his enemies would go over everything he did with a fine tooth comb, he nonetheless (4) didn’t instinctively think “This is a honey trap” and press the emergency secret service button when an intern snapped her thong at him in the Oval Office.  That’s either brutal asswipe stupidity of the lowest order or a perverse thrill in dangerous behavior at the expense of others that might as well be brutal asswipe stupidity of the lowest order.)

Painful Truth #2:
While the Democratic Party recognized the actual Lewinsky affair, however embarrassing, was trivial, their failure to take Clinton’s lies seriously proved fatal to their 2000-2008 goals.

“Put on our presidential kneepads” soured a lot of swing voters (and more than a few Democrats) from supporting Democratic candidates and fired up the GOP base. 

It was a minor tactical skirmish that ended in an even-draw that led to a catastrophic strategic defeat, all in defense of a man undeserving of defense, a man worthy only of shame, ridicule, approbation, and condemnation followed by lifelong banishment.

Painful Truth #3: 
There is a very real possibility that William Jefferson Clinton is a child rapist.

The Epstein case will kick over a lot of rocks, exposing a lot of scummy vermin squirming underneath.

We know Epstein is a pimp who traffics in underage victims.

We know Clinton (and Deplorable Donnie as well; don’t worry, I’m not letting that turd monger off the hook) was a regular and enthusiastic habitué of Epstein’s parties.

We know Clinton to be an untrustworthy liar, a convicted perjurer stripped of his law license for his own perjury and suborning perjury in others.

We cannot believe any claims of innocence on his part.

Not only can we not believe any claims of innocence, we must presume guilt by association.

If you catch a previously convicted mobster associating with other mobsters as they commit crimes, you must assume their guilt as well.  “I was in the room but didn’t participate” just doesn’t fly (harken back to Clinton’s own “I didn’t inhale”).

And by “guilt” I’m not referring to the strict legal definition -- it may indeed prove impossible to link him to a specific crime -- but the fact he willingly and eagerly associated with a known pimp at events where underage victims were sexually assaulted and raped requires us, demands us as Democrats, as progressives, as Americans to hold him culpable for the good of the party, the good of the movement, and the good of the country.

We need a symbolic end to an era of bad faith politics, a door closed on a period of win-at-any-cost politics.

That generation has to pass away, replaced by a newer, better rank of public servants.

(I’m no pie-eyed idealist; I know sooner or later they will produce members who will disappoint.  But right now they’re a breath of clean, fresh, disinfecting air and we desperately need them.)

Publicly passing final judgment on Clinton seals off that branch of the contagion.  It demonstrates a willingness to confront the mess in our own house, and in dealing with that, the moral authority to deal with the mess Donnie is making.

Like Bill Cosby -- another infamous William -- Clinton must be forever shunned from the public sphere. He inflicted enough damage on the nation and the world through his perversely selfish and reckless antics.

And should there be evidence enough to convict, then throw that lying child rapist behind bars for the rest of his blighted life.

He can share a cell with Donnie.

© Buzz Dixon