Out-of-Touch Republicans Need Wake-up

Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial starts today in the Senate, but if Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has his way, it will be over soon.

Lott is no fan of Clinton, but he can count; there will never be 67 votes to convict. Indeed, even the possibility of strong censure language is slipping away as Clinton, buoyed by high poll ratings, prepares his usual prevent-and-prevaricate defense. But the biggest threat to Lott’s effort at compromise comes from his own side, from those seemingly determined to run the GOP off a cliff.

Leading the suicidal stampede is the Wall Street Journal; on Tuesday, its editorial page snarled that Lott was attempting a “wimp-out” and demanded that a Senate trial run its “full course.”

It’s hard to believe that just four years ago, avant-garde contract-with-America conservatives saw themselves atop a rising tide of popular support. Now they stand as lonely but heroic upholders of pre-Clinton moral certainties in a post-Clinton culture.

But in a democracy, taking a lonely stand usually comes at the expense of winning an election. One measure of the GOP’s isolation comes from the Gallup Poll, which shows Clinton the most admired man of 1998, far outdistancing the runner-up, Pope John Paul II. Other gleanings from the popular culture also indicate the plight of the right. The Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, transcribed this recent slice of gush from Lisa McRee, ex-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Asking a question about Clinton’s popularity among women, she answered herself: “Is that because Bill Clinton’s been such a great president whom they elected in great part, or is there something, I want to say, almost sexy, about a man who can get away with things over and over again?”

But if that’s the typical “Fan of Bill” view of many media content-providers, it also seems to be the case that millions of content-consumers see the world through a come-hither prism.

Men’s magazines have gone from raunchy to raunchier. But less noticed has been the raunch-romp of women’s magazines, all of which now compete to catch their readers’ eye with saucy headlines. The cover of the January Cosmopolitan features this big-type headline: “Sex Rules! 10 Make-Him-Throb Moves So That You’ll Never Need a Fire Hose to Cool Down the Bed!” Even more staid magazines, such as Redbook, banner, “Sex every night--Can it deepen your love? Yes! Yes! Yes!” Of course, such cheeky come-ons are nothing new, but that’s the point: Popular culture has been sex-saturated since the baby boomers came into puberty.

“Conservatives should not kid themselves,” William Bennett writes in the latest issue of Commentary about the challenge they face in the ongoing culture wars. Indeed, after a year of spectacular allegations, most of which ultimately proved true, there’s every reason to believe that any new revelations--DNA tests proving that Clinton fathered an illegitimate child? Rape allegations from a Jane Doe No.5?--would only spike Clinton’s popularity further. And so, Bennett argues, the task for the right goes far beyond removing Clinton; the real challenge is a culture suffering from “decadence” and “moral rot.” Not everyone will agree with that assessment, of course, but Bennett doesn’t have to worry; he isn’t running for any political office.

Republicans who do hold public offices, and who wish to retain those offices--not to mention winning back the highest office of all--must make a calculation: How much more time and political capital do they want to devote to a lost cause?

Is the Senate’s going through the motions of a trial really more important than its holding oversight hearings on Clinton’s increasingly no-win Iraq policy? Is it more important to hear from Monica Lewinsky than to hear why America ranks 22nd in the world in high school graduation rates? And will Republicans ever return to their once-winning themes of less government and more personal freedom?

The next national elections are 22 months away. Having frittered away the last year, Lott at least recognizes the need to get back to the basics of a 2000 agenda. But it remains to be seen whether his party will see that every day spent harassing a president in the twilight of his tenure takes it a day further away from future victory.