May I Have My Reality Back, Please? -- 01/22/1999

May I Have My Reality Back, Please?

22 January, 1999

By Steve Myers
CNS Commentary from Exegesis

I seem to have lost my reality. Come to think of it, I seem to have lost a few things I was sure I had stored away safely: my understanding of simple words in the English language, my sense of right and wrong, my ability to differentiate between truth and falsehood. Somewhere in the deepest recesses of my mind, I have a recollection of the reality of life before Bill Clinton.

Ah, that was a time when truth was true, is meant is, wrong was never right, and I knew what platitudes were. Of course that was before I listened to this week's State of the Union speech, which ought never to have been given, by a president who ought never to have been elected, much less reelected, before a Congress which should have canceled it and a Senate which ought to know better than to fraternize with a defendant while a trial is in progress. Still, this is what Mr. Clinton told us would be "the most ethical administration in the history of the Republic."

He has given a whole new meaning to the word 'platitude'. Fifteen more minutes and he would have demanded new government departments to oversee the abolition of the common cold and road accidents! Still, during the Clinton regime, we have all had our realities distorted. Many people have lost faith in the institutions of government, and in the whole Republic.

We have lost faith in the FBI and in the secrecy of the files they keep on individuals. We now know that they will remain secret unless one happens to cross paths with Mr. Clinton. We now have an idea of how it felt to be ruled by Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler. Personally, I preferred being ruled by Thatcher and Reagan, but that's the new reality of the Clinton era.

I preferred a world in which the Head of State was an example to emulate, not an embarrassment to the whole world. Come to think of it, I preferred a nation in which people didn't show up dead when they became inconveniently knowledgeable. It was good when the American President was respected and considered honest. Remember the shock when George Bush went back on his promise of "no new taxes"? Then, promises meant promises. Oh, how I long for the days of innocence when Ronald Reagan wouldn't remove his jacket in the Oval Office because he thought it might be regarded as disrespectful! This President has not only removed his underpants, but has discussed his underpants on television.

The new reality is that sexual harassment in the workplace is acceptable, because it's "only about sex". Wasn't that true of Abraham and Hagar? The new reality is that the agenda of the National Organization of Women and those media whose reporters profess a deep desire to follow Monica Lewinsky's example has been revealed as the promotion of socialism and immorality. There again, I thought I knew what sex was. The Clinton reality is that perceived prosperity counts for much more than facts, truth or character. So what will they buy with it? And if the President's exploits dominate the newspapers and television, so much the better: the media have lost their credibility so completely that everyone assumes it's a soap opera anyway. Paradoxically, nobody believes anything, yet at another level, they believe everything.

I have a long memory. I remember when the President of the United States wasn't part of the criminal underground, didn't deal in drugs and whose surviving friends didn't wind up in jail, fleeing the country or pleading the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid testifying against him in court. And I remember when the Lincoln Bedroom was a national treasure, not a reward from the Democrats' national treasurer.

There are now two realities: one is defined by the widely accepted set of cultural, logical and moral norms with which we were familiar prior to this regime. The other is the corrupt, faux world of deception and duplicity, in which Mr. Clinton and his socialist media accomplices have placed America into a state of national hypnosis. And while America sleeps, the realities collide.

This week's State of the Union speech was nothing less than the espousal of a robust socialist program at which even Lyndon Johnson would have blushed. According to the CATO Institute, Mr. Clinton proposed over $100 billion of new spending. Interestingly, that works out at $666 per taxpayer. Draw your own conclusions! Could this be the same man who proclaimed three years ago "the era of big government is over"?

Which speech was "legally accurate"? Was that one era and this another? Was it a meaningless soundbite to facilitate another media swoon, or just a bald-faced lie? Is it not time America awakened and took a bracing shower?

Time and again the Bible warns that we shall have our reality warped. "False prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect - if that were possible." (Matthew 24:24) Indeed, those in the church who readily compromise the Gospel to placate the politically-correct have been deceived. In the Clinton era, the Ten Commandments have been reduced to an ornament, the Bible to a stage prop. Bill Clinton has had an inappropriate relationship with America, and with reality.

Is it real when the President may lie under oath if he wishes, as long as sex is involved? May he attempt to rig the trial? When the President acts disgracefully in the Oval Office, is it his "private life"? Have we reached the point when he may not be convicted of a crime, even if he is guilty, unless the prior agreement of the media is obtained, and his approval rating in the fictional polls falls below 50% or Wall Street has a bad week? Indeed, has the judicial process been rendered irrelevant, and replaced by opinion polls? It seems so. The Apostle Paul reminds us: "such people are not serving our Lord, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people." (Romans 16:18)

So that's where we are right now. Might things change now the significant date of January 20 has passed? As astute readers know, that's halfway through Mr. Clinton's second term. If Al Gore becomes president now, he can still run for two full terms. Will a few Democrats begin to show an awareness of the ethics that have inspired this great nation since its founding? This much, we do know: God is not mocked. It might be as well for us to remember these words from the Book of Proverbs: "A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will not go free." (19: 5) We shall see.

Steve Myers is editor of Exegesis.

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