ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270030
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Ray L. Garland
SOURCE: RAY L. GARLAND
DESPITE Travelgate, Paula Jones, Whitewater and, now, Filegate, the Clinton re-election express seems on schedule. This recalls the events of 1972, when Richard Nixon carried 49 states and was driven from office less than two years later.
Not in the darkest days of the Clinton presidency did I believe he was certain to be a one-term president. With Republicans so hot to balance the budget, there would always be cards for the president to play as the defender of the many who saw themselves deserving of government help.
It was not for nothing the American welfare state was designed by Democrats over many decades to assure their party a more or less permanent electoral majority. In the 50 years from the death of Franklin Roosevelt, that majority deserted them only when they seemed definitely unable to extricate the country from a mess. But only in 1952 did voters give Republicans control of both houses of Congress in addition to the presidency, and then for only two years.
In 1994, of course, voters did the opposite, a Republican Congress facing a Democratic president. But given the existence of the presidential veto and the Senate filibuster, Republicans were exposed to the certainty of defeat on all measures not commanding broad popular support. So, the president who campaigned to end gridlock became its champion, and liberals had cause to say what conservatives had long proclaimed, "Thank God for gridlock!"
I won't predict the outcome of this election beyond saying that if the people decide to stick with Clinton, they also will stick with most of the Republican members of Congress.
Such prophecy requires no feat of genius. It is what the country has regularly done for 30 years now. There is close to a consensus on the following: Preserve our existing benefits intact, but go slow on expanding them. They trust Democrats to do the first, Republicans the second.
At the beginning of the century, liberals in all advanced nations confidently believed that the industrial and agricultural revolutions then gaining such momentum gave government the means to abolish poverty. Social welfare and education - the twin gods of the new era - would work in tandem to eliminate crime and other bad manifestations of human nature. You still hear them crying out, "Build schools now or prisons later."
A few people suggested that handing out unconditional largesse to the citizens of universal-suffrage democracies would have serious moral and social implications. But little attention was paid to such cranks.
Just as our politics is now built on entitlements that can't be denied, our culture seems based on the notion that people are entitled to do whatever it is they find pleasing. After all, when the big fish are seen smashing and grabbing, why can't the little fish do what they please?
Well, have big fish Bill and Hillary been caught red-handed? Close enough, and it will likely get closer before special prosecutor Kenneth Starr lays down his charge in two or three years.
But in the welter of headlines, let us not lose sight of one simple fact: Most of this mess originates in the decision of government to guarantee deposits up to $100,000 in a one-horse savings bank like Madison Guaranty. Absent this "entitlement," few would have trusted their money to James McDougal and there would have been no Whitewater, no Castle Grande and no loss to taxpayers to pay off depositors an estimated $60 million.
In other words, when you create systems likely to create corruption, you should be surprised only when you don't find it.
House Majority Leader Dick Armey recently released a study correlating the growth of the federal Tax Code with the growth of lobbyists in Washington. In 1964, he says, there were fewer than 300,000 words in the code and less than 20,000 lobbyists registered. By the end of 1993, the code contained almost 800,000 words and there were 70,000 lobbyists in Washington. Of course, these lobbyists are watching over far more than taxes. But the point made is still useful.
In those 30 years, the role of government in deciding winners was tremendously expanded. It should surprise no one that those having a stake in the outcome should post sentinels to protect their interests. It should be equally unsurprising that the potential for corruption has likewise expanded. There is virtually no program of government in which it has not been exposed. But this always ends in the cry President Clinton uttered in defense of affirmative action and minority set asides, "Mend it, don't end it."
The term "kleptocracy" has been invented to describe ostensible democracies, such as the Republic of the Philippines, where pay-offs are taken for granted on everything. We may be edging toward that state of affairs, but we aren't there yet. Americans are still capable of outrage, and the American system of justice is still capable of punishing malefactors.
Whatever the Clintons did or didn't do, they have been at considerable pains to cover their tracks, beginning with the astonishing dismissal of all U.S. attorneys upon taking office, even though it would take months to name and confirm their successors.
Clinton's choice for U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Paula Casey, recused herself from handling Whitewater - but only after she dismissed a referral from the Resolution Trust Corp. that was charged with cleaning up the savings-and-loan mess to pursue criminal charges in the collapse of Madison Guaranty.
Most "soft" Clinton supporters will chime in at this point, "What of it? The Republicans aren't any better." And up to a point, they will be right. A system that naturally engenders corruption will touch most players.
But in Republican proposals from term limits to the flat tax, there is at least a basis for a counterattack.
Bob Dole must now explain why moral rearmament is the most pressing issue facing the country. It is by no means certain he can, or that a sufficient number will be impressed even if he could. But it beats wishing upon a Starr.
Ray L. Garland is a Roanoke Times columnist.
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