Monday, June 06, 2005

Rewriting Clinton's Presidency -- Not Nice

Michael Tomasky of The American Prospect has an excellent article posted online. He reminds us of one of the agendas of the right that I think we ignore to our peril. This is their constant and purposeful attempt to paint the Clinton era as a miserable failure instead of the success it was, inspite of their best efforts to impeach him for nothing. If we allow this meme to survive unchallenged we risk it becoming the same sort of right wing myth as Al Gore and the Internet. We should challenge this lie at every utterance with the facts. The only way they can justify their insane support for "The Worst President Ever!" is to try and hide his atrocious record from the light that radiates from the Clinton Whitehouse.

Tomasky writes:
But there is another reason these anti-Clinton tomes still appear with regularity, and liberals who criticize the Clintons from the left need to recognize it: The right knows that if its historical interpretation of Clintonism can prevail, liberalism as a project can be killed for decades. That is, if they can convince America over the next few crucial years (crucial because historical interpretations of Clintonism are just really beginning) that the Clinton era was not one of prosperity, peace, and a demonstration that government can deliver common goods but was, instead, one of corruption, turpitude, and a fat and happy people discarding moral values for the sake of higher mutual-fund values, they will have won an extremely important argument with serious long-term ramifications.

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