These days, the biggest tasty tidbit of salacious silliness is the whole Bill Clinton / Monica Lewinsky affair. You can’t possibly avoid it, except by booking a one-way ticket to Antarctica, and even there, the conspirational conversation re the President’s underpants is enough to make the penguins blush.
You see, it’s all in the general consciousness - Congress played out like an episode of the Jerry Springer show. A nation founded and fed on the nitty-bitty details of other people’s lives is being force-fed the iniquities of its leader in tasty, eight-page special supplement-sized chunks.
Even in dear old Blighty, with its arrogant insistence that all Americans are incestuous, cud-chewing illiterate hicks from the sticks are lapping it up. After all, the thought of the Leader of a Superpower doing rude things with a white trash groupie with little sense and no taste simply proves the point, doesn’t it?
Only in America is a 450-plus page report containing some of the most inflammatory information in history downloaded onto the internet for spotty kids who can’t get laid to read for pornographic purposes.
It serves no purpose, is none of our business, and appeals to the lowest common denominator to make this information publicly available. You may argue that The People should be made aware of the facts before deciding whether to have the President impeached, but let’s face it - he’s only got 18 months max left in office anyway, so who gives a shit. The worst crime he’s committed is perjory, but that was in passing and regarding another matter altogether.
The Clintons are correct in assuming it is a right-wing conspiracy to oust Bill prematurely from office. It is a deliberate, calculated attempt to destroy a capable politician whose only "crimes" are domestic ones. It is a scenario that shares much with the downfall of the Tory party in Britain during the mid-1990s. We didn't really care what they got up to in their private lives, but if there was any excuse we could use to get them out, then we'd use it. Which is why Robin Cook could survive what Alan Clarke couldn't - and why every attempt to discredit the Labour Party will fail. It takes a lot to surprise the public - especially the American public whose troubled political past has hardly been untouched by scandal. Few could be naive enough to expect their Leader to be a saint - fewer still would believe that anyone will care, so long as the economy is booming, which it is. It wasn't adultery or even large-scale corruption that the Tories weren't forgiven for - it was the recession that landed so many with so little.
The American nation is likely to forgive Bill Clinton - they forgave JFK for far worse.
Which is why Rik and I had the following conversation last night:
"I think it’s disgraceful, prying into
other people’s private lives like that."
"You’re right, it’s none of our business,
and I’m sure they didn’t need to go into that much detail."
"It’s the dumbing down of society -
turning government into a soap opera."
"Quite, and it’s absolutely disgraceful,
having huge supplements reprinting the rude bits like that."
"Where? Give us it!"
"Hang on, I haven’t finished reading
it yet... Oooh! How shocking...."