A lesson learned from FABULOUS FAILURE, a Bill Clinton-focused work by Nelson Lichtenstein and Judith Stein

 Political skill means nothing, without a clear moral compass. 

In my life, I have been right and wrong about much political analysis. I followed politics from an early age, and I voraciously read books connected to history and politics from when I was too young to truly understand anything. When you’re young, passionate, and idealistic, one can make a lot of mistakes in embracing various political passions. Some of my youthful analysis I’m still quite proud of today—I ominously saw from their beginning stages that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were headed for disaster, even while a supermajority of the country loudly assured me I was wrong, and that America would never stop kicking ass. However, I also made plenty of mistakes in my youthful politics, and I was perhaps never more wrong than when I kept telling myself back during the chaotic mess of the Bush II years, that things would have been so much better if only Bill Clinton was still in charged. Historical opinion has soured on the Clinton presidency in the ensuing decades, and that is the focus of Fabulous Failure, Nelson Lichtenstein’s and Judith Stein’s in-depth economics-based study of Clinton’s mess of a presidency. 

There was much to admire about Bill Clinton, even for those who found him repulsive in other ways. He was one of the few presidents in American history who truly rose up from humble circumstances (along with Lincoln, subject of a previous blog), as he was raised by a single mother in a modest Arkansas household. Coming of age during the idealism of the 1960’s, Clinton developed a practical approach for trying to keep the Democratic Party relevant in the increasingly conservative America of the 1980’s and early 1990’s. His ability to charm a crowd and his (somewhat) youthful energy made him stand in sharp contrast to the Bushes of that era, both of whom were born with high offices in their mouths. By the time he was elected president in 1992 (the first presidential election I have even a vague memory of), he and his inner circle felt they had developed a tech-oriented approach that could modernize capitalism, soften its worst edges, and create an economy that could bring prosperity to both Wall Street and middle class Americans. Indeed, the economy by many factors relentlessly boomed during Clinton’s presidency and was one of the last eras when most Americans felt their overall well-being steadily improved. 

However, Stein and Lichtenstein (that has a nice ring) argue that Clinton’s presidency helped to lay the groundwork for the economic and political collapses that would convulse America in the 21st century, and that the primary culprit was a lack of a vision and moral compass amongst Clinton and his closest advisors. Far from coming up with a comprehensive framework for how a modern tech-based economy could actually function effectively, the Clinton Administration instead had a blind faith that corporate wealth, combined with the apparent superpowers of the Internet and the word of Wall Street tycoons that good behavior would be rewarded, could build a global economy that would grow without limit. As he yanked government rules from the world of Wall Street, housing loans, global trade, and media companies, Clinton repeatedly ignored warnings from political leaders that he was risking catastrophe for the sake of short-term economic gain. One pointed section of the book discusses Clinton signing disastrous mass-incarceration themed bills that America is still trying to figure out a reasonable way out of three decades later—and doing so for the purpose of helping to ensure his re-election in 1996. Clinton privately grumbled that the country’s financial powers could not be trusted, but almost always caved to their pressures; one of the cardinal rules of politics is that actions speak louder than words. 

Clinton was nothing if not a likable, tragic man who often allowed himself to be destroyed by his own character flaws, and that theme is hidden all over Stein and Lichtenstein’s book even as they often avoid explicitly mentioning the elephant in the room. I was stunned to be reminded—and Clinton himself has noted—that the infamous impeachment effort against him only consumed around a year of his presidency, yet in American memory it is one of the only things anyone remembers about him. The Republican-led effort to remove him for covering up his affair with Monica Lewinsky stunk of hypocrisy and political opportunism, and justifiably so (the authors note all the conservative impeachment leaders who were caught in their own extra-marital dalliances). However, Stein and Lichtenstein also see a failure of the nation to have a true discussion over what morally is acceptable from a president, as we instead devolved into the partisan loyalties that have seen consumed the nation. Today many of us now see a 50-something national leader abusing his power and trust to have an affair with a 20-something intern, just one of many morally shaky personal decisions Clinton made regarding the women in his life. Instead of triggering a larger national reform effort to clean up politics, Lewinsky became the butt of decades of filthy jokes and insults, and we have continued to pay the price for tolerating such behavior from our politicians ever since (though to her credit, Lewinsky has apparently done OK for herself, since becoming a fun social media personality). 

The Clinton presidency began with great hope and promise, a breath of fresh air to a country mired in a deep recession under the geriatric Bush I (as another author put it, Clinton was the first president of his life who felt like a fatherly rather than a grandfatherly figure). Ultimately, Stein and Lichtenstein tell the story of political promise squandered through a combination of a lack of moral vision for the country under the Clinton presidency, emanating from the top with the failings of Clinton himself, and the permeating every aspect of his administration as it attempted to craft national policy. The country could still learn much from studying the Clinton presidency—particularly, how it helps to have a grand vision of what the country can achieve, rather than chaotically try and address one crisis to the next and worry about the consequences later.