You hear or read it about it all of the time -- Five teenage girls are strip searched at school and sue for various things including counseling to ease the emotional and moral trauma created by the school authorities. Well, it seems about time that the Presidential lying and sexual misconduct be held to the same standards for the emotional and moral trauma that has been, and continues to be, inflicted upon the innocent children and adults of this nation by his actions.
What are you supposed to tell your seven year old about telling the truth when he tells you that the TV said the President was going to be arrested for lying? |
Frankly, like most citizens of this great nation, I don't know how to fully answer that question. We try to keep the TV off for the most part, but this kind of thing continues to sneak into TV news-- as it should, because lying by the President is news. This gives way to the larger issue of what are those of us who feel that lying is not OK supposed to do? Just as some teenagers seek counseling for the moral trauma of being strip searched by school authorities, it seems the decent and honest souls in this nation need some counseling to help regain our decent and moral foundation caused by a lying President. Furthermore, the President (not taxpayers) personally should pay for the cost of such counseling as it is his personal behavior, not his public duties, that have created this problem. It is time that a class action lawsuit be engaged by the decent and honorable people of this nation against the President for the damage he is causing to the moral fabric of individuals and to our society.
Is this a tongue and cheek proposition? Well, I chuckled at the thought when it first occurred to me. What would it cost to provide counseling to 200 million citizens? Even at ten cents an hour, we are talking serious money. Who knows, a class action law suit of 10 billion dollars might even get the attention of Clinton protectors if they thought they could get a reasonable settlement out of his demise -- which would speak volumes about the reasoning behind their support of him. It became a bigger chuckle the more I thought about it. However, the more I thought about it, the more times I have to listen to the President's apologists essentially say 'lying is OK because it is about his personal life', the more times I hear the President's apologists attack the victims of the President's unwanted sexual advances, the more I begin to think a class action for counseling the good (and lost) people of this nation would be an appropriate action to consider. Lying to hide personal misconduct is not OK, it is immoral; Lying to the courts is illegal, not just immoral; Lying to protect a lie is just as deceitful; going along to get along because it benefits you to do so is just as reprehensible...
If the President doesn't soon consider stepping down, where does that put our nation's moral compass for years to come? If the President can lie on this issue and have an army of supporters for the lie fan out and obsfucate the truth to the public for him, what is to say he isn't lying on Social Security reform, Medicare costs, tobacco settlements, etc, etc. Is it OK to lie on this or that issue so long as some Clinton special interest benefits from the lie? Won't everyone need some counseling to restore the tear in the moral fabric of this nation? Or is our nation doomed to an eternity of lying about Presidential personal and public policy? How is lying about having sex with an intern and then setting her up with a high paying job in the Pentagon different from lying about Medicare Cuts to get seniors to vote for Democrats? It appears quite likely that the GOP Congress doesn't have the guts to take a stand against the President because they are afraid he will start (or continue) attacking them with lies about them and/or their policies. Lying to guide public policy has proven to be a vicious and effective PRESSidential policy for this President.
In many respects, the only action that will really get the President's attention is one that comes from the honest and moral people of this nation; a people that have a moral foundation; a people that don't have an elected job lose; a people that could overwhelm any resources he could possibly muster to counter; a people that don't have any particular face for the President or his minion of supporters to attack with more lies; a people that put morality of their leaders and the nation above their own personal gain. Such is basically the purpose of the Class Action lawsuit -- it allows the little people some justice against larger forces. Isn't it time for the American People to show some class... some class action?
Back to the question -- is this a tongue and cheek proposition? Frankly, I don't know... What do you think?