Jail to the Chief? Jones Case Another Blow to Presidency By Richard Craig May 30, 1997

This week the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Paula Jones may proceed immediately with her sexual harassment suit against President Clinton. This means that soon we will likely see a trial with Clinton called to the witness stand and forced to testify about allegations of exposing himself to Jones.

Whether you like President Clinton or dislike him, this will be a sad moment in American history, because it will further debase an already weakened office. Beginning with Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, the presidency has gone from an office regarded by many as a symbol of our country's best and brightest to a position greeted with scorn nationwide. And it's happened within the lifetime of most Americans.

When most baby boomers were growing up, there was still a certain level of dewy-eyed patriotism that came almost automatically with being an American. Many of that age still get a slight lump in their throats at the playing of the national anthem; many at one time believed that regardless of the party of the man holding the nation's highest office, he was still "our president." This is a phrase that has essentially disappeared from the American lexicon.

We all know the reasons behind the disillusionment that came in the 1960s and later -- this isn't meant as a rehash of Vietnam and Watergate or any of the other scandals that helped strip away some of the prestige from the presidency. What's informative is to examine the role the president played in the years before this disillusionment. In many ways, America set itself up for the presidential fall from grace.

Before the 1930s, the president was largely seen as a distant, remote figure -- generally benign and benevolent, yet hardly someone whose actions, policies or personality had much impact on the lives of most Americans. The Great Depression, World War II and Franklin Roosevelt's actions on each of them changed the role of the president in the eyes of most of the population. For the millions helped by FDR's programs, he would forever be a hero, and his picture would forever hang next to those of loved ones. To these people, the president was now almost a member of the family, even though few ever met the man or saw him speak in person.

The "family member" metaphor extended easily to Harry Truman, and to the grandfatherly Dwight Eisenhower, though Ike turned it up a notch by being one of the two or three great heroes of World War II. Many American kids growing up in the late '40s and early '50s could say the name "General Dwight David Eisenhower" before they could pronounce "spaghetti," and this was before he became president. When John Kennedy assumed the presidency, not only was he a war hero, but also handsome, young and charming. Throw in all the attention from the new medium of television, and the office had become a glamor position, with each new man placed slightly higher on a presidential pedestal.

In a way, the memory of this seems quaint now, yet in hindsight America might be a better democracy today if we hadn't had such "heroic" presidents in those days. It is said that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the backlash from the era of presidents on pedestals has been devastating to the office of the presidency. We've gone from the presidency being the ultimate goal of every wunderkind to an office that no sane person would want. This is largely due to the foibles of the men we've elected, yet the cynicism that accompanies the job for any new president almost makes it seem like he carries the weight of all previous transgressions on his back the day he is inaugurated.

It's not a bad thing to recognize that presidents are human. However, it is corrosive to the office to forget that the person we elect is usually the type of individual we would consider remarkably distinguished in any other arena. No one doubts that Clinton is downright brilliant at knowing the details of policy -- while most Republicans would say he's misguided, you never hear him called dumb. Yet we're almost as quick to assume Clinton is a slimy social climber as we were to conclude that George Bush was a dim bulb, an out-of-touch snob, rather than a distinguished American with years of service to his country.

In many ways, we've become quicker to condemn presidents than all the substandard people we meet in day-to-day life. Do we automatically assume our car mechanic is a crook if he forgets to retighten a door molding bolt? Do we consider a grocery bagger a deceitful criminal because he puts the eggs underneath a jar of juice? No -- we just conclude that neither of these people is the sharpest knife in the drawer, mutter to ourselves and move on.

On the other hand, America's first reaction to a presidential slip-up of any kind is "Ah, they're all crooks anyway ..." When Americans turn on a president, they treat him like he's abusing their children. This is a sad double standard -- we choose the person we think is best qualified to lead the country and make all the important executive decisions, then begin four years of methodically tearing him down. While this is sometimes justified (as would be the case if Clinton were proven guilty), it is nonetheless disheartening to see the office dragged through the mud.

Whether Clinton actually committed the act in question is almost beside the point. One way or the other, given the nature of the allegations in this case, a trial will almost certainly degenerate into another Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill sideshow. This will certainly sully the already shabby image of the presidency in some people's eyes, and probably hinder the job of Clinton's successor in some yet-undetermined way.

By virtue of his womanizing reputation, Clinton left himself open to charges such as these long before he became president. This is Clinton's own fault, regardless of whether the charges are true or not. Richard Nixon's long-standing reputation as a power-hungry man of dubious morals helped fuel the investigations that helped drive him from office. This was Nixon's own fault, regardless of the sins he committed as president. Yet each man was considered one of the brightest minds of his generation, and each man made numerous contributions to society in his time.

Unfortunately, by bringing this baggage to the presidency and behaving in ways that left various actions open to question, each has left a stain on the presidency that may never go away.

©1997 Richard Craig. All rights reserved.

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