Don’t stand by your man

Friday, October 30, 1998

Don’t stand by your man

PRIDE: Hillary should leave Bill for being unfaithful
husband

I swore on everything holy that I wouldn’t talk about Clinton in
my column.

"Lisa," I said. "You’re a smart cookie. Yes, you have opinions,
but there is such a thing as giving the people too much of what
they really don’t want anymore. Last year it was affirmative
action. This time, it’s the president, and anything more would be
overkill."

So, in allegiance to my readers and myself, I will not talk
about Bill Clinton.

Instead, I’ll talk about the other Clinton – Hillary Clinton –
because her recent behavior has been one of the true disgraces, one
of the true embarrassments our country has had to suffer
through.

At this point, you’ve either assumed I’ve gone nuts or figured
that if you keep reading, I’ll be there any moment. Well, my fellow
donkeys and elephants, I kid you not. My bone to pick is indeed
with the first lady, not her (in)famous husband whose actions
everyone would generally associate with this nation’s disgrace and
embarrassment.

Maybe I’m talking about her because no one else is. Or maybe
it’s because everyone should be.

It is my opinion that Hillary should publicly leave her husband
immediately – while he is still in office. Truth be told, Bill’s
personal affairs, no pun intended, probably should have never
infiltrated the public sphere in the first place. But now that they
sadly have, it is imperative in respect of the first lady and this
nation’s women that Hillary leaves him.

I am simply ill at the sight of today’s Hillary, side by side,
hand in hand with the man who so deeply betrayed her. I cringe as
she looks up to him in seeming admiration or speaks sweetly on his
behalf in those media sound bites. And while those smiles may very
well be fake, a "put-on" if you will, to convey to the public that
everything is A-OK at the White House, they still transport a
ghastly message.

Folks, this is a leader. Granted, she wasn’t elected to the
position, but because of her relation to the president she
nevertheless stands as one of the most prominent and recognizable
figures. Thus, when she quietly poses by Clinton’s side, harkening
back to the submissive ’50s wives that the decades since have tried
so hard to dispel, she sends the message that this type of behavior
by men is acceptable … is forgivable … is forgettable. Excuse
me if I’m wrong, but the last time I checked, the marriage contract
wasn’t a trivial article, though maybe in this day and age that’s
what it has been reduced to.

Now that I’ve laid out my demands, I think it only fair to
acknowledge that this will never happen. Hillary will never
publicly leave the president while he’s still in office, if at all.
One reason? The political power that her role affords her is not
something this woman is eager to suddenly walk away from. Do you
want another reason? She doesn’t want to risk hurting him out of
either sincere concern (unlikely), political allegiance (even more
unlikely), or fear of further damaging his career (ding, ding,
ding!). The final possibility? Maybe this super-intelligent woman
has simply been in the dark. Impossible, you say?

White House aide Sidney Blumenthal doesn’t think so. And a
Newsweek story reporting Blumenthal’s grand jury testimony of a
conversation with the first lady shortly after the scandal broke
seems to point to Hillary as the last to know: "Mrs. Clinton told
Blumenthal that she was ‘distressed’ that the president was being
attacked ‘for political motives’ (and that) her husband had told
her that he had just ‘ministered’ to a ‘troubled’ young person.
‘The president had come from a broken home,’ Hillary explained. ‘It
was very hard to prevent him from ministering to these troubled
people’" (Oct. 12, "Secrets and Lies," Evan Thomas).

Troubled, eh? The truly disturbing part of this whole affair is
that officials seem to have been covertly shrouding Hillary from
the president’s indiscretions since the beginning. Ron Addington,
an aide in Clinton’s 1974 campaign for governor in Arkansas,
relayed that the president was never eager to have Hillary around
headquarters: "Clinton had surrounded himself with a circle of
admiring female campaign volunteers … if Clinton heard that
Hillary was coming over to headquarters, he would arrange to have
(whichever girl was there) slipped out the back door." (Newsweek,
Oct. 19, "Bill and Hillary’s Long, Hot Summer," Evan Thomas).

In the face of all this evidence, which is so readily available
to and imposed upon the public eye, how can we support Hillary
staying with this man despite his misdeeds – not as a national
leader, but as a husband? Sure, I’m the first to applaud Bill for
his impressive leadership record, and I will continue to applaud
him as our leader. But for Hillary to keep clapping is a
disgrace.

Now, as I say this, I realize that I have a substantial
opposition on this issue, for many of you believe that Hillary
leaving the president means the nation leaving the president.

After all, how can we respect and allow our leader to represent
this country when his own wife walked out on his pathetic
existence? You just might have a valid point, were it not for the
differentiation between contracts. You see, when Bill and Hillary
married, they took a vow; now that the vow has been severed, the
contract could be considered null. On the other hand, the president
vowed to serve and protect us, and however well you think he has
performed that duty, he has broken no contract with the people of
the United States. Also, when we wonder how we can respect him, let
us keep in mind that the true respect in question is not of the
president, but of his dishonored wife.

Many of you may ask, "Hasn’t he been punished enough?" I am not
advocating that Hillary leave him to punish him, although a
Newsweek poll shows that nearly three quarters of those surveyed
still want him punished in some way, or investigated further (Oct.
19). It is simply what needs to be done in order to show this
country that women do not sit well with infidelity, even when it’s
by the president of the United States.

Others will persist, "Won’t this drastically affect his ability
to lead the country, and in turn, weaken our nation?" Maybe. But
I’d like to think that the people have already formed their
opinions of him and his actions so that Hillary’s leaving him
wouldn’t throw us into national upheaval where we could no longer
trust our own leader.

I think most of the damage to be done has been done and most of
the trust to be lost has been lost.

While I’m not supporting placing one woman above the best
interests of this nation, I am supporting the move of one woman who
stands for the dignity of all women. Her move reaffirms female
power over male abuses of the institution of marriage. Her respect
is not just hers but the respect of all of this country’s women.
Unfortunately, that move is hers and hers alone.

Hillary, the ball’s in your court.

Lisa Silver

Comments, feedback, problems?

© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]