The Albatross
Member
Amongst people like me... White, moderate to progressive, middle-class, it's remembered well. Almost nobody that I know really holds anything against Bill Clinton for his sexual escapades. They think it's embarrassing that he lied to the country about it, but because we were under unbridled growth, most people think positively about it, and think more negatively about Kenneth Starr and Republican leadership attacking Clinton for those escapades.
Although, I do think there's something troubling with that when I take off my partisan jacket and look at it sober minded. Clinton has been embroiled in a number of sex scandals most of which are him abusing his power over a woman, usually using his power as governor or president to take advantage of someone who works or reports to him. He's also been accused of being actually raping a woman. Clinton then uses his power to dismiss the allegation outright, and then goes onto character assassinate the woman (or victim depending on your perspective), and then once the dust has settled and Clinton comes out relatively unscathed, he admits that she was telling the truth and he says he's sorry. But, most progressive-minded people laugh it off as "Ol' Bill up this shenanigans!" I think part of this is because the Right was so divisive in their attacks on Clinton, but really, I think it outlines a double standard amongst Democrats.
I think if we step back and look at the Monica Lewinsky scandal outside of the Republican and Democratic flag waving, we'd see something much more troubling. For instance, if the CEO of a company used his position in the company to have sex with a young, up-and-coming woman in the company, and then that relationship resulted in her losing her job and being blackballed from the industry, while he comes out relatively unscathed save for some uncomfortable televised mea culpas (yet goes onto earn millions of dollars in subsequent years), I think progressives would have a lot more condemnation for that CEO. But because it's "our guy" we look the other way.
There were also some uncomfortably unprogressive laws that Clinton worked with congress on: the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and Republican welfare reform most notably. But because the economy was moving at such a furious pace, I think most people are willing to look beyond this.
So, Clinton's presidency as seen well. Even in the debate this week, you had the Republican nominee seemingly agreeing with the Democratic nominee that his presidency was a success but that she couldn't take credit for it. That's not something you'd see in most political debates.
Although, I do think there's something troubling with that when I take off my partisan jacket and look at it sober minded. Clinton has been embroiled in a number of sex scandals most of which are him abusing his power over a woman, usually using his power as governor or president to take advantage of someone who works or reports to him. He's also been accused of being actually raping a woman. Clinton then uses his power to dismiss the allegation outright, and then goes onto character assassinate the woman (or victim depending on your perspective), and then once the dust has settled and Clinton comes out relatively unscathed, he admits that she was telling the truth and he says he's sorry. But, most progressive-minded people laugh it off as "Ol' Bill up this shenanigans!" I think part of this is because the Right was so divisive in their attacks on Clinton, but really, I think it outlines a double standard amongst Democrats.
I think if we step back and look at the Monica Lewinsky scandal outside of the Republican and Democratic flag waving, we'd see something much more troubling. For instance, if the CEO of a company used his position in the company to have sex with a young, up-and-coming woman in the company, and then that relationship resulted in her losing her job and being blackballed from the industry, while he comes out relatively unscathed save for some uncomfortable televised mea culpas (yet goes onto earn millions of dollars in subsequent years), I think progressives would have a lot more condemnation for that CEO. But because it's "our guy" we look the other way.
There were also some uncomfortably unprogressive laws that Clinton worked with congress on: the Defense of Marriage Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and Republican welfare reform most notably. But because the economy was moving at such a furious pace, I think most people are willing to look beyond this.
So, Clinton's presidency as seen well. Even in the debate this week, you had the Republican nominee seemingly agreeing with the Democratic nominee that his presidency was a success but that she couldn't take credit for it. That's not something you'd see in most political debates.
