The recent opinion piece by Mike Pascale Jr., published in the Oct. 3 issue of the Daily Forty-Niner, is not only a generalization of the progressive movements around this country (many of which dislike the policies of Bill Clinton), it’s flat out wrong. Let me ask a general question – name a person who has been completely honest for the entirety of their life? I can’t think of any, and I doubt you can too. Dishonesty has been around and practiced much longer than either the concepts of liberalism or conservatism.
The argument Pascale made was saying essentially that liberals are dishonest, but links to Sept. 11, WMDs and yellow cake uranium all turned out to be false, and the administration knew it was.
“But Bill lied,” you say. True, but when Clinton lied, who died? Indeed, not “all” Republicans were against Clinton. But certainly, enough of them were against him to block legislation. It should be no surprise that NAFTA got through, considering that both the Democrats and Republicans of today prefer economic liberalization – the deregulation of the economy and trade systems. However, several security measurements such as increasing anti-terrorist regulations for airlines and expanding the govern-ment’s wiretapping authority were blocked by Republicans.
Furthermore, Clinton’s accomplishments – increasing the FBI Counter Terrorism Center’s budget by more than $500 million, thwarting multiple bombing attempts and actually trying not to alienate the rest of the world, should be recognized. As with the Kyoto Protocol, it would’ve faced complete opposition, considering that the U.S. Senate passed in a 95-0-0 vote Senate Resolution 93, effectively saying that the Senate would not support it.
What I insist is that elusiveness, deflection and dishonesty are not traits only of liberals, but rather a resort to anyone who’s in power. But remember, there are always two (or more) sides to the story.
As for Pascale’s theory, and as with any conspiracy theory, anything’s possible in the world of politics.
– Christopher Chavez, sophomore political science and economics
