Sunday, December 7, 2008
Outside Reading post 4 of 12
The saying "The first time is always the hardest" rings true with the Clinton Presidency. Coming off a win in the 1992 Presidential election and a great inaugural speech, the first issue Clinton faced was meeting with the Military chiefs of staff about the situation of Gays in the military. The new President had to make an ethical decision about weather to go and attack strongly in support of his beliefs or play it cool to not make a bad impression as a new president. Mr. Stephanopoulos says of their situation; "I was proud of his argument, but I also knew that we had no cards to play. If we didn't work out a compromise with the chiefs,, they would sabotage us on the Hill" (124). The Clinton staff was confident in their viewpoint, but they did not want to create political uproar, so they were at a fork in the road. They could go for the aggressive but possibly devastating move, or lay low and come to a safe compromise. What ended up happening was bad overall for the Clinton administration, the compromise evidently not paying off, with the author saying; "The compromise satisfied no one, except Republican political strategist, who now had a killer issue for the 1994 midterm elections. The military resented the intrusion, Democrats were furious, the public was confused, and the gay community felt betrayed" (128). In this particular situation, taking the safe route against your beliefs did not keep them safe. The Clinton administration learned this the hard way, as many administrations have done. This problem shows that you have to stand up for what you believe is right, even though it may be risky, or you may end up falling flat on your face anyway.
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2 comments:
President Clinton was wise right off. Those who throw a red flag, or want to, must often, sometimes for their own safety, weigh the effects of what they're doing. Those in high places have a lot to lose. Its usually in their best interest to play the cards with enough neutrality to keep the majority happy. That is pinned down by democracy.
It is interesting to hear about the pitfalls that were in the choices of this administration, and to acknowledge at the same time that Clinton's presidency is still looked at in a positive light with most people. I believe that no matter what poor decisions Clinton had made or hadn't but could have made, people would still love him because he represents a positive time in our society. I would be interested to know how people would think of him were he to have been president during the middle of such a huge crisis like 9/11 and the Iraq war.
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