Are Americans As Dumb As the GOP Thinks?
By Richard Craig
December 12, 1998
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Are Americans As Dumb As the GOP Thinks?By Richard Craig December 12, 1998 |
Wait a minute. Didn't America just say "no" to impeachment a couple of weeks ago?
Maybe I need to go back and re-read the last election results. I was under the impression that America expressed its displeasure with the House's heavy-handed hypocrisy and threw several of the bums out. It seemed to me that the elections sent a message that America wanted to be done with the whole wretched Clinton scandal.
Alas, it looks like House Republicans have other ideas. Apparently believing that they are Kings of the World, it appears that they've decided to ignore all warnings and head full-throttle into the iceberg that is impeachment.
Is denial really this powerful, or is something else at work here? How can an entire political party so blatantly ignore an obvious electoral mandate -- the same mandate that ousted Newt Gingrich?
Easy. They think we're morons.
Or at least they think that American voters will have forgotten all about this whole process in two years. They've concluded that Americans are so apathetic that by 2000, they'll have no idea who it was that completely ignored the will of the people.
It is true that President Clinton deserves some sort of gut-wrenching public humiliation for the utter idiocy of his private acts. But no one less conservative than approximately Ronald Reagan really believes this is an impeachment-worthy offense. Not only is it not a high crime against our system of government, it's a litmus test that many members of Congress would undoubtedly fail. This includes Henry Hyde, the moralizing Judiciary Committee chair who has admitted to his own affairs but insists that they aren't an issue here. He's referred to them dismissively as "youthful indiscretions," though he was 41 at the time.
Let's look at this situation a little more closely. Hyde maintains that the true crime here was not in having an affair to begin with, but in lying about it. Granted, Hyde never stood before a grand jury and lied, but was he ever asked to testify about it? No. So to whom did he testify? How about his wife?
Given his rhetoric, we can assume that Mr. Hyde must have gone home after his assorted trysts and told his wife all about them in detail -- not because of guilt, but because it was the right thing to do. Yeah, right. What we have here is the pot calling the kettle a liar.
Even worse than this hypocrisy, however, is the open contempt for the public shown by members of what used to be called "The People's House." They could have accepted the election results as a message from their employers (that's what we are, remember?). Instead, they've chosen to thumb their collective nose at the public and kowtow to the party's right wing.
The far right has convinced party leaders that the election went badly not because the GOP has lost touch with the mainstream, but because it hasn't gone far enough around the bend. It's hard to imagine Gingrich as any kind of force for moderation, but his resignation has allowed saber-rattlers Tom DeLay and Dick Armey to step up and assume more power. While Bob Livingston is about to become the new House Speaker, it's become clear that DeLay and Armey will be calling the shots.
Their hard-line arch-conservatism is far to the right of that of even Gingrich, and they've shown little reserve in demonizing their enemies, among both Democrats and less conservative Republicans. DeLay in particular is known for his strong-arm tactics and threats to ruin the careers of Republican back-benchers who fail to follow his lead. With slash-and-burn politicos like this in charge, the Democrats may soon yearn for the days of Newt.
Perhaps most embarrassing of all is that the impeachment vote is scheduled to take place before the new Congress is sworn in. This will give the House GOP a far larger majority than it will have in January, courtesy of a bunch of people who just got thrown out of office by their constituents. This shows a basic disrespect for not only the will of the people, but the basic underpinnings of our democracy. Perhaps the accepted phrase for this is "hardball politics," but the word that comes first to my mind is "cowardly." The House GOP has turned into the boy that can't have his way, so he takes his ball and goes home. Hardly a ringing endorsement of our supposed best and brightest.
None of this would be allowed to happen if Mr. and Mrs. America gave a damn. Behavior like this among elected officials only happens when it's allowed to happen. Because there are no congressional elections for two more years, some of our representatives seem to think that they can behave any way they want. They figure that two years from now, the impeachment vote will be ancient history, and no matter how angry the people are now, they have no recourse.
If people cared enough, they might remember a little power called the recall. If your officials act irresponsibly, you don't have to put up with it. You can vote their butts right back out of office at any time.
Term limits have become the fad for keeping officials from becoming too entrenched, but I don't like them and counter with three arguments. First, they're unconstitutional, and second, they unfairly punish our few worthy officials and create a musical-chairs atmosphere in legislative bodies. The third argument, however, is that we already have the recall power. If our officials turn into slimeballs, let's see how they like a recall election. Even if they prevail and stay in office, the public humiliation and loss of reputation involved would certainly keep them on their toes.
Hmm. It seems like the more public apathy we see toward politics, the more we talk about our legislative bodies getting out of control. You think maybe these two facts are related? I do.
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