#MeToo: Leave the Clintons Alone
How strange is it to see progressives and conservatives unite on anything? Well, they have gathered together (not in the same room, mind you) to accuse Bill Clinton of abusing presidential power to satisfy his sexual libido: specifically, coercing a young intern, Monica Lewinsky, into his bed. I beg to differ, and so does Hillary Clinton. This blog has been no friend to Hillary Clinton, but she is right on this one - because there is a material difference between consensual sex with a powerful man and Weinstein-style sexual predation.
Abuse of power is defined as someone exploiting the function or resources of his or her position to procure something to which the position does not entitle him or her. If Bill Clinton had ordered the IRS to audit the Lewinsky family or threatened to fire Monica for rejecting him, then that would constitute abuse of presidential power. Furthermore, Ms. Lewinsky was a legal adult: responsible for her decisions, accountable for her actions, and an employee at will (meaning she could leave at any time and sell her story to the tabloids).
Conservatives should stop piling onto this #MeToo over-reach. To be sure, Clinton was married and his extramarital affair was reprehensible. The age difference calls into question his emotional maturity. Sex in the Oval Office is really unbecoming of a US president, and it was a crime to lie about the affair under oath. However, do conservatives really want to hoist militant feminists into totalitarian roles as chaperones for all intergender relationships? Perish the thought.
It is one thing to condemn Bill Clinton for his character or lack of discretion. It is quite another to conflate his flirtations and charm offensives as abuse of the presidential office, because that is to suggest he committed a workplace crime. How many times does his wife, Hillary, have to tell Americans to stay out of her marriage or beg feminists and conservatives to stop criminalizing her husband's infidelity? The Clintons are entitled to their privacy and Hillary can sue for legal divorce without the help of complete strangers. Hillary is no fool and knows super-feminists attack Bill to create #MeToo headlines, and super-conservatives just want to destroy her husband's legacy.
It would be a Christian act for pious conservatives to forgive Bill Clinton for his marital sins because Hillary and Chelsea have obviously made their peace with husband and father. Conservatives pushing this abuse-of-power charge invite America onto a slippery slope, where an unmarried department head can never ask an unmarried employee for a first date - even if it is just lunch. Conservatives should not empower Senator Hirono (D-HI) in her quest for men to just “shut up” and believe every woman’s allegation.
I am a traditionalist, who believes humans are hardwired for the man to do the asking and the woman to grant consent. I am also an egalitarian, who believes women deserve equal treatment as a social construct (male co-workers cannot become a nuisance) and under the law (male bosses cannot apply undue influence). As a practical matter, feminists hurt their cause when they attack married couples and consensual sex - because half the country is male and the other half has brothers, sons and male friends.
In my lifetime, I have observed feminism’s slow and steady progress - and I am convinced woman will hold half the seats in the House and Senate by 2028. I have watched the rapid rise of female partners in accounting, law, architectural and medical firms - and I believe cultural changes come with that progress. Common sense, however, dictates that feminists cannot totally disregard gender differences or respond to all of societies problems with man-blaming.
It is possible progressive Democrats (such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) now demonize Bill Clinton because of his center-left politics. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is too young to remember President Clinton single-handedly revived the Democrat party when many had left it for dead. As a political matter, today is not the time to erase Clinton’s center-right legacy that included economic prosperity and balanced budgets.
Progressive Democrats must be realistic and call Bill Clinton what he actually was: a serial philanderer - but no white-collar rapist. I also believe conservative Christians should do their extreme moralizing in church and not on Fox News. It has been 18 years since Bill Clinton left office. Since then, he has maybe engaged in possible pay-to-play schemes (and that’s a big MAYBE). As to his possible abuse of power to have sex with Monica Lewisnsky, let’s nip that thong-snapping nonsense in the bud - or rue the day we empowered an intergender-relationship gestapo.