The Good Old Days
December 9, 2000

A basic tenet of the American conservative movement is that we have lost our moral way in recent times. We are a society of moral degenerates and degeneration and it's high time we "usher in an era of responsibility" and "restore honor to the White House." The premise that we are more immoral than in our past is popular, but absurd.

Let's look long term. Want to go back to the morality of 150 years ago? Slavery was "moral" in the South-part of God's plan. Today, we no longer sell human beings in the newspaper. That's a huge improvement. We allow women and people of color the right to vote and sit on juries. I'm grateful we've come so far.

Do you want to return to the glorious 1950s? We had to send in federal troops to protect little children from adults throwing rocks and screaming "Nigger!" as they walked to school. True, in the 50s, many more girls were virgins when they married. Of course, the average age they married was 19, and only rarely did girls even consider college.

Before the social revolutions of the 1960s, life wasn't more moral. It was just simpler for those in power. Blacks and women "knew their place" and were becoming increasingly angry and resentful. Lack of freedom doesn't make society moral. Ethical decisions must be based on the ability to choose right from wrong, not to have them blindly dictated from a power-base. That power base is so often grossly misguided. The 50s were not Jim Anderson, but George Wallace.

America is also better off morally since President Clinton took office n 1992. Which statistic would you like? Crime is down in every category. Even violence in schools is lower overall, despite the high-profile copycat shootings. Unwanted pregnancy and abortion rates have tumbled. The percentage of teenage virgins is at a twenty year high. Illegal drug use is way down.

Do I believe Clinton is responsible for this good news? Of course not. But, obviously, neither has he set a plague of immorality loose upon the country.

My Dear Readers, Americans are so puritanical that Republicans impeached the President of the United States for trying to keep a blowjob secret from his wife and daughter. And conservatives think we are backsliding? Some compassionate conservatives wouldn't be happy with anything less than having a scarlet letter "A" tattooed to Bill. And the same people who signed the Defense of Marriage Act criticize Hillary for not demanding a divorce. Go figure.

We do have problems. Senseless violence (but not like lynching), internal division (but not like the Civil War), and poverty (but not like the Depression). We don't have to exaggerate or imagine problems. We have to be able to discuss them rationally to find solutions.

The argument that we are evolving morally might be the truth, but it won't fill many pews in church or attract many listeners to talk radio. Jerry Falwell and Dr. Laura need something outrageous to be against to bring an audience together. How sad.

It's easy to wail and gnash our teeth crying, "Nostalgia ain't what is used to be!" But I don't want "the good old days." Those were the days when people were forced to play a role-sexually, philosophically, racially, and morally. And Clinton has taught us what we should have learned from Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson-that the quality of one's presidency depends upon much more than his faithfulness (or lack thereof) to his wife.

These are the days when we have choices and consequences of our own making. The whole world is before each one of us, allowing us our own lives in our own hands. These are the good old days.