| The following column appeared in The River Reporter on August 27, 1998, and republished on September 2, 1999. |
By Bert S. Feldman
The Recusant Reporter
Thursday, August 27, 1998
Somewhere around the year 50, the Roman satire writer Decimus Junius Juvenal made an interesting observation. In the past, he said, the Romans used to care about how their country was run. Today, he continued, as long as they are given panem et circenses c bread and circuses — they couldn’t care less. (The circus referred to the big circular racetrack, the Circus Maximus, where they could bet on the chariot races.) In short, as long as the people had something to keep them amused and their bellies full, they couldn’t be bothered with concern about their government.
We in the land of the free and the home of the brave are doing much the same thing. Americans don’t seem to care about what may be going on down in Washington, but rather take delight in an alleged sex scandal concerning our president. The fact that employment nationwide is at a high that hasn’t been achieved for the past 28 years and that it’s been a long time since our country has been in such good shape is forgotten.
The fact that our country, under the guidance of presidents Reagan and Bush, ran up a national debt of over four trillion dollars (that’s four something followed by 12 zeros!) is being conveniently ignored while we are titillated by tales of stains on Ms. Lewinsky’s dress. The big debt was run up by Reagan’s "trickle-down" economy, wherein all sorts of tax breaks were handed out to the big buck boys, and whatever dripped off their plates was given to us, the peasants. We have a similar plan working at home; our dog seems to approve of it. Woof!
Mr. Bush once called it "voodoo economics," but he didn’t do a blessed thing about it once he was called upon to run as vice-president with Reagan.
Presidential philandering goes way back to George "I can not tell a lie" Washington, who dallied with Mrs. Fairfax; Thomas "Declaration of Independence" Jefferson, who had a slave mistress; Grover Cleveland, who at least had the decency to pay child support for his illegitimate child; all the way up to our century.
We have had probably our worst president, Warren G. Harding, who it was long rumored fathered a daughter in a White House closet; Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had an obliging secretary; Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had his chauffeuse (that’s a female chauffeur) Kay Summersby; up to John F. Kennedy, who believed in quantity not necessarily quality, and so on. The only ones who seemed to believe in marital monogamy were Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter.
Regardless of their hormone-inspired proclivities, some of these presidents were good for their country and others were total losses. Why is president Clinton being threatened by Congress for his peccadilloes and bothered by holier-than-thou hypocrites, many of whom were, at one time or another, in the wrong bedroom at the wrong time.
The knuckle-head "Georgia peach," Newt Gingrich, even had the effrontery to blame the horrible events in the East African embassies on the president’s alleged misbehavior. In that, he is obviously doing some panem et circenses hanky panky, keeping the American people amused and bemused while the barbarians are at the gates.
I personally think that William Jefferson Clinton has been doing a decent job as chief magistrate. I do not condone his indiscreet behavior, but I voted for him to run my country, not to be my moral conscience.
Back to work; the circus show is over. And what are the gang in Congress trying to cover up, anyway?
THE OLD PHILOSOPHER SEZ: It only takes a misplaced "I" to turn a marital relationship into a martial one.
