The Dark Side…

To think, it was not long ago that I worshipped at the shrine of Bill Clinton.

It was the Superhero myth as sure as there was a Joseph Campbell.

He was the mythic archetypal hero we needed to turn around our sliding fortunes…


I thought he was the best strategic mind the democrats had.

A brilliant and gifted speaker.

A man for our times.

I didn’t like some of the things he did, however. I didn’t like the fact that he turned the democratic party into republican lite. I didn’t like the fact that we had moved too far right for my taste. Nonetheless, these seemed to be small sacrifices for the benefits I thought would accrue to us.

The most important thing being survival—especially after the embarrassment of the Rainbow Coalition and how it had disintegrated into splinter groups each with its own nationalistic agenda.


On the other hand, I marveled at the wonderful people he consigned to responsible jobs.

No sinecures here.

No Brownies that needed patting on the back; no Attorney General’s that couldn’t carry their loads; or Treasury Department chiefs who didn’t know what they were doing.

And the appointment of Reuben was brilliant!.

I even admired Clinton’s wife and her courage and brains.

And I respected her for what she tried to accomplish in health care. I was so impressed, I even started to check out her bona fides which seemed rock solid.

They were the closest things I had for heroes.

And that was not so long ago.


Maybe that’s the reason I am so disappointed in them now.

In my own particular way of thinking, they had left me down. And they had with just as little concern, jettisoned all the things that I respected about them.

By their words and actions, they began to seem small, mean-spirited, too anxious to win at any cost and it was beginning to show.

Maybe I expected too much in the first place; maybe I had deluded myself.

Was it too much to expect honesty, integrity, character, fair play from my heroes?

I don’t think so….

One by one I saw those attributes frittered away in the contest to decide a nominee.

And what I saw ruined if for me.
Three months into last year, I realized I had been all wrong all along..

All those battles I fought against those who attacked the Clintons; the campaigns I fought, the marches I endured, the money I raised……

I was sad to learn that my heroes were not really heroes at all; only types who wanted to win and didn’t care what they said or did in order to get there.

They seemed to fall further and further away from grace each time they opened their mouths.

I didn’t think we had to eat our own to win.

Nor did I think we had to reduce ourselves to unfeeling creatures.

That was not the way I wanted to win.

If we couldn’t win fairly and honestly with our souls intact, what would be the value of our win?.

What it be worth entering into a bargain with the Devil make it all worthwhile?

Of course not.

In my opinion, they had sacrificed all of the good will, all of the love that they had amassed over many years to throw it away on something they could have won legitimately another time perhaps.

It was all gone--integrity, courage, fair play, the truth.

I wanted no part of it.

I could never sell myself out the way they did; nothing could be worth doing and saying the things

Perhaps there’s some mitigating circumstances, but I am having trouble finding them.

Perhaps it takes a superhuman ego to run for president in the first place; a belief that you’ve earned the presidency and that nobody’s as good as you are.

On the other hand, I was brought up in the tradition of the Greatest Generation. The Tom Brokaw perspective. . I was brought up to believe that you serve your country with integrity, honesty and modesty. You don’t go around blowing your own horn. You labor hard and do your job. And honesty was the most important trait. And through it all, you treat your fellow man with dignity and respect. And even manage to have a sense of humor.

I discovered I had nothing in common with these people. We were not cut from the same piece of cloth. Yes, I liked to win; but not at the expense of my honor, the truth, my integrity. Even if they won, they had lost me.

So, I tipped my hat and said, “Adieu.”

It was not going any further, not with me, not with the people I knew, not with my generation.

Over the long term, I think it will affect everything they do, everything they aspired to. They put too much on winning and not enough on doing the right thing.

And those of us with long memories, will find it hard to forgive them.

Les Aaron