For Those Who Have Forgotten

From a David Limbaugh April 4, 2000, review of the Peggy Noonan book, “The Case Against Hillary Clinton” --

What is Clintonism? It is not a political ideology, but “the ethos, style, and character of the Clinton administration.” It is about “maximum and uninterrupted power for the Clintons.” Note that it is not about only Bill or only Hillary. Noonan does a masterful job of demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between the two. They are mutually dependent and enabling. They are partners in power.

Clintonism sees America as “the platform for the Clintons’ ambitions, not the focus of them.” They are the kind of people who pursue greatness for the sake of attaining fame and acquiring the label of greatness, instead of quietly achieving greatness by doing great things.

For the Clintons, any ends justify the means of advancing their careers. As a result, deception, abuse of power, scandal, smearing opponents and ruining perceived political enemies is their joint legacy. In standing for Clintonism, the Clintons “have made the American political landscape a lower and lesser thing.”

A longtime friend of Hillary’s, a political ally who “had been inclined to like Hillary,” but ultimately “couldn’t” . . . depicted Hillary and Bill as joint narcissists. “They have done a particular kind of mind-meld.” The lady described the Clintons as being empty and miserable apart from their power — as people who derived their sense of self-worth from public adoration. That’s the key to understanding why they won’t just go away and leave us alone. They are hooked on adulation. “He cannot live a genuinely private life. Neither can she. So they must be in ours. ... Which makes their private plight our public problem.” . . .

Together [the Clintons] have used the office and power of the presidency to destroy innocence and idealism and institutionalize cynicism. Instead of using their position and circumstances to do wonderful things, they have degraded everything around us and have further debased our culture.

From the Washington Times, November 3, 2000 --

What is Clintonism? It is less a political philosophy than a power philosophy. Reduced to a bumper sticker, it reads, "The Ends Justify the Means." As a practical policy, it expresses itself in blatant lies and stonewalling, threats and character assassination, Internal Revenue Service audits of opponents and the menacing of inconvenient women. In its ill-concealed contempt for congressional subpoenas and court orders, it betrays a disturbing executive disregard for the legislative and judicial branches of government, whose powers, of course, are essential to our system of checks and balances. As a guiding national ethos, its corrosive impact on society hasn't yet been fully reckoned, but its success to date is what makes this election so crucial.

Is Clintonism America's future? Considering how comfortably well-off most Americans are, the question may fall on indifferent ears. Maybe the question should be: Can Clintonism hurt America? There are many ways to answer this affirmatively. We can look at the rise of cheating among school children who seem to have learned from Mr. Clinton and his loyal-to-a-fault vice president that crime does pay; or we can consider, painfully, the numbing sexual practices of teen-agers whom Mr. Clinton, through his grotesque indiscretions, has robbed of their innocence (not to mention the rest of us). But are there more palpable, perhaps more immediate threats to the nation that may also be put down to the amoral roots of Clintonism? . . .

What about the law? What about checks and balances on the executive branch? What about the Constitution? These, alas, are just some of the casualties of Clintonism.