Sunday, December 29, 2013

SHAME NEEDS TO MAKE A COME BACK Geoffrey G. Fisher Today there is a crisis in our culture, a crisis that gets little attention but deserves serious scrutiny: THE LACK OF SHAME IN AMERICA. As Merriam-Webster puts it, shame is a “Painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety…you know you have done something wrong and you have the ability to feel guilt, regret, or embarrassment. How did we get here? One answer is the character development of the baby boomers who were spared from the hardships of the Great Depression and of World War II – they were pampered and indulged more than any other generation in U.S. history. The boomers also saw the disintegration of the family unit in the 1960s through divorce and the exodus of the modern woman from the home into the workforce. The result was a crack in the moral foundation of America and the beginning of moral relativism in our personal and our religious values. The lack of shame became turbo charged twenty years ago in 1993 with the inauguration of the first baby boomer as president, namely, our 42nd president: William Jefferson Clinton. WILLIAM CLINTON AND THE MONICA LEWISKY AFFAIR The Clinton-Lewinsky Affair started four months into Lewinsky’s White House Internship on November 1995 (she was 22, the president was 49 and continued until March 1997. One month after the affair started she was put in a paid position in the White House Office. There was NO SHAME exhibited by Lewinsky or the president – she can be forgiven due to her youth and naiveté, he cannot. By January 27, 1998 Paula Jones' attorney, John Whitehead and Independent Prosecutor Kenneth Starr teamed up to build a case regarding Clinton’s history of sexually harassing women. Like a true Victorian woman wronged by her husband, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton lashed out at the public and said in a broadcast interview that a "vast right-wing conspiracy" is behind the charges against her husband. Given their time in Arkansas she knew better but had no shame either. On January 28, 1998 the president utters the infamous line: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” With the finesse of a high school boy, Clinton tried to wiggle out of his predicament by parsing his words, no vaginal sex = no sexual relationship. President Clinton went on to say "I would never walk away from the people of this country and the trust they've placed in me.” No shame from Mr. Clinton. On July 30, 1998 sources say that as part of her immunity agreement, Lewinsky had handed over to prosecutors a dark blue dress that she alleges contained physical evidence of a sexual relationship with the president - it becomes the proverbial smoking gun. In August the president finally admits to an inappropriate relationship with that woman – his reputation is shot. After fighting Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit for four years on November 13, 1998 Clinton agreed to pay Jones $850,000 to drop the case. But the deal included no apology from the president. No shame. CORK-SCREW HILLARY In 2007 on the campaign trail it was reported that Mrs. Clinton even plugged her years as First Lady of the United States as evidence of her vast political experience. This claim was too juicy for rival candidate Barack Obama to ignore. Michelle Malkin reported: “Ever since Barack Obama suggested Hillary Clinton’s eight years as first lady were a glorified tea party a few days back, she’s looked for an opening to strike back. On Saturday night in Dubuque, Iowa she pounced, arguing she risked her life on a hair-raising flight into Bosnia on March 25, 1996 that ended in a “CORKSCREW” landing and a sprint off the tarmac to DODGE snipers. ‘I don’t remember anyone offering me tea,’ she quipped. This episode showed Hillary Clinton delivering a whopper of a lie with the finesse of a middle-school girl trying to impress her friends. She then embellished this lie by adding, "I remember landing under sniper fire…(t)here was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but INSTEAD we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base…now that is what happened." Alas, a video of the episode was found a few days later that “shows Hillary and her daughter Chelsea CASUALLY strolling off of an airplane, all smiles. The video showed a …lengthy discussion with a LITTLE Bosnian girl, who gave Mrs. Clinton a hug, a kiss and a BOUQUET of FLOWERS.” This is a shameful episode that demonstrates Mrs. Clinton’s pathological need to promote herself as a modern day Joan of Arc. Corkscrew Hillary lied trying to claim experience for being prepared to be president. This incident alone disqualifies her from being president. She also had the gall to say later that she simply misspoke – another lie from Corkscrew Hillary – there was NO SHAME shown considering the insult she displayed to the parents of soldiers who have undergone real combat. Now juxtapose Mrs. Clinton’s blatant lying to John F. Kennedy who was saddled with being the son of a rich man who was “buying” the presidency. Rather than lie about his privileged upbringing, JFK used humor to acknowledge the obvious and then he diffused the issue. This quote is from a 1960 press briefing: “I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.” “Without nepotism, Hillary would be running for the president of Vassar.” By MAUREEN DOWD, September 30, 2007, New York Times. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL On Monday May 17, 2010 the New York Times reported about a speech given by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal: “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. There was one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records. This draft dodger showed no shame and was not held accountable by the voters of Connecticut. Now he sits in the U.S. Senate. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ The Washington Post put it this way: “Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Tuesday denied a report from Washington Examiner columnist Philip Klein who quoted Wasserman Schultz saying, ‘We know, and I’ve heard no less than Ambassador Michael Oren say this, that what the Republicans are doing is dangerous for Israel.’ ” There was an immediate response from Ambassador Oren: “I categorically deny that I ever characterized Republican policies as harmful to Israel…” Mrs. Wasserman Schultz simply changed gears. She denied ever suggesting the Oren criticized the Republicans. “I didn’t say [Oren] said that,” she said. “And unfortunately, that comment was reported by a conservative newspaper. It’s not surprising that they would deliberately misquote me.” She might have gotten away with this treachery except that The Washington Examiner had a recording of the DNC Chair speaking to Jewish Delegates. The audio transcript has her saying: “We know, and I’ve heard no less than Ambassador Michael Oren say this, that what the Republicans are doing is dangerous for Israel.” DWS proved herself to be both stupid and a liar. But worse than her stupidity is that her brazen lie bordered on treason. The politics of the middle-east are volatile enough without a U.S. Congresswoman manufacturing malicious confusion that benefits our enemies. Again, there was NO SHAME and NO ACCOUNTABILITY from the established press. BARACK OBAMA AND THE 2014 MID-TERM ELECTIONS. Is there any wonder why 50% of the American people suspect that the president deliberately lied to the nation in order to salvage his signature healthcare policy? The antidote for our present situation is to hold politicians accountable and make them pay a price. For President Obama and DNC Chair Wasserman-Schultz, the price needs to be a crushing defeat for the Democrats in the 2014 mid-term elections so that the political pendulum swings back towards the middle. Total Word Total: 1360 Geoffrey G. Fisher is a federally designated Highly Qualified state-certified history teacher living in southwest Florida. He holds a BA in History from the University of Connecticut and a MA in Public Policy from Trinity College in Hartford, CT. In addition to teaching he is a former elected official and speechwriter. Mr. Fisher now writes the political blog: THE THINKING CAP at www.theamericanthinkingcap.blogspot.com He is also a weekly columnist for the Political e-Magazine: THE PATRIOTUPDATE.COM

1 comment: