Tom Acton
Political Science 101 W
Dr. Connelly
15 March 2001

    For the last eight years, Americans have been bombarded with illicit story upon illicit story, regarding their leaders. The public had already lost nearly all respect for politicians, starting with Nixon and Watergate. It was then that the media began its hunt of stories that would embarrass or otherwise damage politicians, because, frankly, it makes money. People in this country, and throughout much of the world, will throw down their fifty cents for a paper any day of the week, provided there is a good, juicy, hopefully disgusting and despicable story on the front page about someone who had previously masqueraded as a decent, respectable leader. Because of the commerce that can be created, reporters will stop at nothing to find a story to aid in their tapping of this newfound wealth. They will refrain from nothing, as money is their number one objective. What these money hungry reporters are finding is that no one is perfect. Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton's affair is certainly something they should both be ashamed of, but it is nothing I care to hear about. I would love to be informed of any indecent act that actually affects the running of this country, but if the man is cheating on his wife, I'd rather have the people of this nation, but mostly people of other nations, think we have a decent, moral man running this country. Losing face in front of your own people is something that, though obviously not a good thing, is not going to do anything too horrible in the short term to the country as a whole. Losing face in front of the rest of the world decreases the weight our president can hold in any international situation. But even that occurs mostly in the short term, as every four or eight years, we have a new man in office with a clean slate.

    In the long term, Clinton's various scandals, which certainly do not need More reporting on in this paper, hurt the presidency, and every government office not by giving one branch a chance to gain more attention, power, or respect, but simply by possibly being the final nail in the coffin in which Americans have buried all respect for officials. It had been happening for some time, starting with Nixon and his scandals, leading right up through Clinton, and even to George W. Bush. The press has even begun retro-fitting their prying articles. If I have to hear that "every president" does something, and I have to hear Kennedy having affairs as an example, I swear, I'm just going to snap. That does not make it right. The media has even attacked Bush Jr. for trying cocaine and being a bit of an alcoholic...even though he has not had a drink in some twenty years or whatever the figure is, and obviously is not on coke. Luckily, those reports did not seem to have much of an affect on the people of this country. It is interesting to note that it seems as though confessing sins makes you a better person than never having committed them these days.

    Americans can no longer expect decent behavior from their government officials. Granted, before Clinton, most people had already lost faith in those they almost unwillingly elected. How many officials were elected with less than half of their constituents voting, and how many votes did they garner simply because "there wasn't anyone worth voting for," and they were the lesser of two evils? Clinton, however, took the pain of having such corrupt and immoral leaders to a new high. Possibly the sex scandals could have gone off without giving him anything more than a few extra jokes on Leno and a couple more referrals on Letterman as "Slick Willy," but the recent corruption around his pardons is just what this country needs to never again care about politics. If this country can run decently with leaders like him, who cares who we elect?

    My faith in his leadership ended long, long ago. FBI files on Republican leaders in the White House, Chinese contributions to his campaign, the list goes on and on. How these issues were shadowed over by some oral sex, I will never know. I guess this country is either too immature, or just too focused on sex, to criticize its leaders for the right reasons.

    Politicians have become movie stars in this country, susceptible to the same sort of gossip reporting and no-holds-barred attacks by the media, and because of that, Americans no longer see politicians as anyone they need to respect. When a population cannot respect its leaders, it is in a state where no motivation can truly be kindled, and no movement to change anything can gain any speed. Leaders have lost the ability to lead because of those that preceded them, and the state of disgust, and finally apathy, that they left the country in.

    George W. Bush seems to be well aware of the apathy this country is stuck in, and the roots of that apathy having been planted deep in shady leadership. Whether or not he has the skill or talent to bring people closer together may be inconsequential.

    If the country has, for too long now, been drowned in a lack of respectable leadership, it will be impossible to motivate Americans to do a single thing, or care about anything. If, however, all is not lost, all it will take is a good moral character to bring the people under Dubya's wing. It seems as though the second, more optimistic scenario might just play out. Talk of unity is abound, and though it is usually meant to describe people of different income levels, races, sexual preferences, or favorite fast food chains, coming together in harmony, the true unity might just come from decent, upstanding leadership, taking a nation of apathetic individuals and forming them into a motivated base that feels like they can change things, and change things for the better.