Convenience And Expediency–The Last Refuge Of Hillary Clinton And Other Scoundrels

Hillary Clinton made a public apology yesterday (3.10.15) for having kept her own email account while at the State Department. It was only for convenience, she said a number of times, and had nothing to do with secrecy, an attempt to hide incriminating evidence or suspicious correspondence. Of course no one believes her.  Even if her past had not been clouded by Whitewater, Travelgate, Rose Law Firm, and the Lincoln bedroom, her apology was still a prickly, defensive, and totally self-serving account of her days at the head of government’s most important department. She was the Secretary of State, obligated by law to be open and transparent; and to be responsible for maintaining the highest ethical standards throughout her office.  All of what transpired with Mrs. Clinton at the helm would be and should be part of the historical record.

Her excuses were lame and obvious, as most were concerning previous years’ scandals, but crossed the line into irrelevance. Having to fumble in her purse for three cell phones, to account for multiple bills, and to keep both personal and public life in order are all certainly inconvenient, but nothing compared with the enormous responsibility of running the State Department.

Her insistence on convenience was expedient; and expediency has been the watchword for her entire public career. Hillary did things because she could not because she should. Although her thinly-veiled attempts to hide or cover up unsavory aspects of her past are not that different from most politicians, they take on a special importance because of her high official position and her ambitions to be the Chief Executive of the land. It is one thing for a first-term Congressman from Alabama to have one hand up the skirt of his Administrative Aide and the other in the public treasury; but another altogether for someone of the stature of Hillary Clinton.

James Madison, Jefferson’s Secretary of State

More than anything it is her smug arrogance that rankles and angers.  Her self-anointed moral premiership and her fixed-smile dismissiveness of the electorate have already doomed her to the margins of history.  Try as she will to fool us that she is God-sent and the only American alive to save us from world anarchy, she can never succeed.  Her expediency – her lack of any firm moral ground – is too bitter to take.

She has convinced herself that she is a model of moral rectitude and ethnical probity.  In her mind she has done nothing wrong given the enormity of the responsibility to keep the Republic safe.  What are a few missing pages in the historical record compared to preserving the greatness of America?  To anyone else, she simply has retreated into a secret bunker where she is the server, the software, and the sender.  Her uniqueness and special place in American history need to be nurtured, protected, and kept fresh for the future.

She is undoubtedly the only person who could possibly entertain such thoughts; and that is what makes her so unattractive and totally untrustworthy.  Few people have ever liked Hillary Clinton and certainly not in the way they liked her husband.  Many voters admire her for having broken through all the glass ceilings she has encountered, and begrudgingly grant her a certain intelligence and political savvy; but it is her arrogant dismissal of anyone but herself that dooms her to a life of ghastly caricature. 

Bill deserved every one of the bathroom jokes he got for being a good ol’ boy who couldn’t keep it in his pants, especially once he had seen Gay Paree; but except for women who had been cheated on and never gotten over it, most people forgave him for his peccadilloes – for that was what they were – and loved him for his caring, sharing, and genuine compassion.  Hillary deserves every single distorted photograph which portrays her as a shrewish vixen. “A SUCCUBUS IN THE WHITE HOUSE?” was the bold caption under this photo posted on the front page of the Wethersfield Herald:

It went viral because of all the unflattering photographs of Mrs. Clinton, this one seemed to capture her clownish, false enthusiasm.

The point is not only about Hillary Clinton but about the culture of expediency which seems to have become as universal as enterprise.  Everyone thinks twice before committing themselves on a moral or ethical issue.  ‘The ends justify the means’ – the credo of expediency – is applied in public and private life.  ‘Take the easy way out’ is another way of putting it.

Santa Claus was a stand-in for a higher moral authority. “He knows when you are sleeping.  He knows when you are awake.  He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake”.  Father Mullins was as eloquent as any priest at St. Anselm’s Church about the all-seeing nature of God.  The message was not that you couldn’t hide from Him, but that you offended him with unrighteousness. Every sin was another sword thrust into the body of Christ.  In the view of the Church expediency was the worst sin of all because it denied God’s absolute good.

It seems that we have veered far from our moral moorings. The fact that we have come to expect a certain measure of duplicity if not outright untruths from our politicians is a sure sign of being adrift in rough waters.  Why do we tolerate politicians who run for office on the basis of everything but principle? Why do we put up with their evasiveness? Stating one’s political philosophy is not a hanging offense. Admitting moral compunctions about abortion, same-sex marriage, or the death penalty is not heresy or blasphemy.

Elizabethan courtly justice took a rather different view. Leniency was defined as chopping off one’s head. Most heretics and traitors were put on the rack, disemboweled, and then burned at the stake.  Nothing like that in 21st century America where all we want is the truth.

We the electorate are complicit in this unholy culture of expediency.  We let politicians off the hook.  We dismiss the central values of civilization since Mohenjo-daro (honesty, courage, compassion, empathy, valor, and discipline) as culturally relative, thus unmooring all boats.

There is something to be said for the harsh, vindictive, and punitive actions of the Old Testament God. Everyone was held accountable to the provisions of The Law. There were no relative interpretations, no compromise, no exemptions.

Othello is not the tragic hero he is often made out to be.  After killing Desdemona in a fit of jealous rage, he admits the act but not his guilt. Facing his judges he explains that by murdering a treacherous woman he has saved them from female deceit. He cannot face up to his moral failings, accept responsibility and punishment.  He argues expediency with his last breath.

No one says that adherence to moral principles is easy.  Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ when he must have known who He was.  Peter denied Christ three times trying to save his own skin.  Joan of Arc devised the most improbable excuses for her behavior to avoid moral responsibility and burning at the stake.

God only knows that a certain modicum of honesty from Hillary cannot be not that hard.

I hope she drops out of the race. Yes, I hate to throw out the brains and political savvy with the bathwater; but that foul, stagnant tub has got to go.