Clinton Trial Essay, Research Paper

Josh Innes

English

Final Draft

The Clinton Trial

The Clinton scandal is finally over, the publicity, the accusations, the

lawsuits, but now that it?s all over who is going to pay for it. I?ll bet it will be youo

and me, the average american tax payer. After reading an article in the Times

Magazine, the Clintons? attorney fee which is $8,000,000. Where does this money

really come from?

The money comes from the hardworking tax payers, people like us. Just

thinking about it makes the blood in my body boil. What I don?t understand is how

one person screws up, and the reprocussion causes others to pay for that one

individuals mistake. I go to school part time and work over forty five hours each

week, and nobody pays for my mistakes. Well no one except me. Millions of

Americans have expressed the same view, wether in the tabloids or in day to day

conversation. Even though the predications of the anarchy never came true and

the markets never crashed, the economy was affected. For about a year now we

(the Americans of the United States) spent a close eye on the Clinton Trial,

starting from the accusations, to the trial, then to the impeachment and finally to

the Senate, to the vote that meant whether president Bill Clinton still had a job or

not.

When I think about this entire trial which never should have occurred,

makes me so angry. I feel that in some ways the system turned itself inside out.

The House members, who stand for election every two years, were the ones who

drove the process forward despite widespread resistance. The Senate was

supposed to judge the case on its legal merits, which was supposed to be protected

from public scrutiny. But in the end, the Senate accepted the fact that the public

had reached a complex decision to tolerate Bill Clinton?s action. The decision

really was settled when the nation spoke out in Clinton?s defense. The public felt

that his private life was exploited due to his position as a the president of the

United States.

What makes me so mad is that this incident happens to millions of couples in

America. But I do not have to pay the price, that we as a nation did with the

Clinton scandal. So many Americans felt that the Clinton issue should have been a

private matter . For years the debate has raged over which conduct is public and

relevant, and which is private and protected. I felt that the Republicans declared

the private aspect of Clintons misconduct as everyone?s business, especially the

Senates. I feel that the Republicans are half to blame for all the focus on this

issue. The House of Representatives kept it going with the impeachment of Bill

Clinton. I felt that the other half to blame is the media.

If the media got the message from the public, then the country would have

been probably happy to move on. Media in today?s world is such a problem. the

way that they exploit peoples private lives. The entire issue on OJ Simpson , the

Mendez Brothers, Amy Fisher, Princess Diana, etc. With all these stories I would

pick up a paper, and that?s all the papers right about. I understand that we, as

the public, should be aware of what?s happened in the nation, the economy.

However, when you start exploiting other people?s personal lives, then it becomes

wrong and sometimes a deadly situation. Look at the Princess Diana case, if it

wasn?t for the media, the couple never would have been running in the first place.

They were running from the media for privacy. And in the end there was the tragic

death of two extraordinary people. So many other people?s lives have been

disturbed by the media and why? Well many say that it?s due to the publics right

to know what there politicians are doing. But the question that I leave you with,

Would you want someone snooping in your personal life? Now that the Clinton

scandal is put to rest what will we do?

The better question is how do we feel about the issue? Many people say that

Clinton has survived with so few Americans approving of his character, but so

many more approving of his performance.

All this trial has shown me is that Clinton has no moral authority, but has

governed somewhat well. Over the past six years, we as a nation has questioned

his authority. From the welfare reform, balancing the budget, raising the

minimum wage, promoting peace in Ireland and elsewhere. Overall, in my

opinion, the president didn?t do such a bad job.