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Wednesday, December 23, 1998


Most recent past comment.
What's Really Important.

It may be hard for some of you to believe, but I have been accused of being a liberal. It was inevitable, I suppose. Even though I support the flat tax, a national sales tax, fiscally responsible budgeting, prioritization, local control, abolition of unfunded mandates, stronger evaluation and accountability of all government officials, and the strongest possible defense... But, just because I feel that President Clinton should not be thrown out of office for trying to keep his sexual peccadillos secret and that those who shallowly and hypocritically denounce him for that while doing the same, or worse, themselves are the real problem... now I'm a liberal. In the most recent poll considering this issue it is reported that there is a small minority of people who resolutely want Clinton thrown out. Here's how it breaks down:

Impeach Do Not Impeach
 Republican
Independent
Democrat
52%
31%
12% 
 13%
29%
52%
 Liberal
Moderate
Conservative
 12%
33%
52%
25%
46%
24% 
 Male
Female
52%
48%
46%
 54%
 Married
Not Married
 68%
32%
54%
45%

The chart should be read that "Of the people who responded "Do not impeach" 54% were married."
Those who had no opinion are not shown, throwing the totals off.

So, the married, conservative Republican men are incensed and want him out. Every one else is a liberal, I guess. Interestingly, though, the independents (which is what I really am),were split on the low side of caring about it. Overall, I find it all so intriguing because of my graduate training in Political Science and History. It's especially interesting in the way that we are taking the assumption reversals so in stride. Impeachment is now a page two story for most people. Another poll (Pew Research Center) which measured the intensity of public interest showed a far greater public interest in the school shootings in Arkansas and Oregon, the November elections, the summer heat wave, and the military strikes against Iraq. On last Saturday when CNN broadcast the House vote on impeachment, people did flock in, but when CBS cut from the hearings to the NFL game between the Jets and the Bills, the viewership shot up to 12 million, quadrupling in fifteen minutes.

So, in the final analysis, what I have been trying to say, if you reread my comments, is "Enough." It is fascinating to me that people are so quick to criticize a man who has given his life to public service for succombing to temptations that we all give in to, one way or another, pretty much on a regular basis. As many have, I also find it abhorrent the way he wagged his finger at us and said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." My skin crawls at the weaving in and out of legal technicalities and definitions of the moment. And I wonder, cringing, what my 17-year-old daughter is getting out of all of this. But in the end, we are all human, all in the same boat, all in bed together. We should not be surprised by this fact, even in its alarming permutations that splash onto the dinner table. In the end it is our example that tells the tale. For me, forgiveness (first and always), then understanding, perspective, fairness, charity and courage... that's what I'm going for.

That's what's really important.


See you next time?


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