Sometimes, it feels like the situation in this country is hopeless.
When I see stories like this, I really think that this country is mired in some strange mix of a total obsession with power mixed with Puritanical roots that never really were weeded out, and which gives far too many Americans an unhealthy and, frankly, immature attitude towards all things sexual.
Once again, just in time for Hillary's run for office in 2016 (not that I care for her), Bill Clinton's indiscretions while occupying the White House are front and center. Once again, we are hearing (repeatedly, at that) about Monica Lewinsky.
Nelson Shanks painted the official portrait of President Bill Clinton, but he added a little reminder of the Monica Lewinsky controversy, despite the fact that it was, pardon the pun, entirely blown out of proportion.
“I put a shadow coming into the painting, and it does two things. It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.”
Shanks elaborates further:
“The reality is he’s probably the most famous liar of all time. He and his administration did some very good things, of course, but I could never get this Monica thing completely out of my mind, and it is subtly incorporated in the painting.”
The most famous liar of all time?
Now, this is what I am talking about! I mean, we have known some really serious liars who's offenses are far, far greater than Clinton! I mean, Hitler, hello? How many times did he lie in order to hide his true, aggressive, expansionist intentions? Yet, Clinton is a more famous liar than Hitler?
Let's get a little bit of perspective here! I mean, Clinton was hardly trustworthy, truth be told. But let us look at the impact of the lies told, before we throw around ridiculous labels that reveal more about our own unhealthy attitudes towards sensationalist headlines about sex and scandal than anything else. I mean, the man who followed him, and outright promised to bring integrity back into the White House, lied about the reasons for entering a fucking war that cost over 100,000 Iraqis their lives, and shattered America's reputation for honesty and fair dealing the world over! Yet, he does not get half the crap from people who would consider themselves good, patriotic Americans than Clinton does for getting a blowjob?
Ridiculous.
That is why America's tarnished reputation is, on some level, deserved.
Someone getting a blowjob in the Oval Office remains big news, to the point that the official portrait reveals a shadow looming over the presidency. Even though Bill Clinton has been out of office now for over fourteen years, and the scandal broke over sixteen years ago! Even though the man who succeeded him and promised superior ethics would be restored into the White House lied through his teeth about a far more important issue: war. Even though Bush and Cheney made a point of keeping everything that they could get away with secret in the name, supposedly, of national security, which is hardly fair dealing with the American public that they are supposed to be serving, rather than exploiting. One corporate scandal after another, and he brought the country to the brink of an economic collapse. People were really hurting, and we are only now recovering, and not fully, at that.
Yet, people still have the temerity to focus on a blowjob and a stain on a blue dress?
What is it with Americans, anyway? This is one of the topics when I feel truly ashamed to share a nationality with some truly outrageous and highly hypocritical people.
Let's get something straight: most of the world will choose a married man who lies about sexual indiscretions more than an oil rich man who fabricates reasons for starting a war in an oil rich country, period.
I could elaborate on that further but, frankly, there really is no reason to. For those who choose not to understand that (and let's be clear that it is a choice that they are making in such ridiculous judgments), then understand this: the fact that Clinton's lies still get more attention than Bush's lies reveals everything that the world needs to understand about the American political climate. Such thinking legitimizes the growing sentiment that something is really, really out of whack here, that priorities are all wrong, and that the United States is a political basket case at this moment, and this will not chance in the foreseeable future. If you still, after all of this time, think that Clinton was the more disgraced leader because he lied about a blowjob, then you are the problem in this country.
Here is the link:
Bill Clinton’s official portrait includes shadow of Monica Lewinsky’s infamous blue dress, artist says By Dylan Stableford of Yahoo News, March 2, 2015:
No comments:
Post a Comment