poli-tik/ poli-tok

"Back to the Future" now featuring Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and Donald Trump

Navigating politics is like opening your fridge at 3 AM and finding that the chocolate you had been looking forward to eating all week has expired. As an avid lover of gossip, I think two of its most interesting forms are political scandals and rap battles. Focusing on the former, I cannot help but think of the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky affair in 1998 that brought to the fore the inextricable threads of the personal and the political.

A quick Google search is more than helpful in determining the timeline of the alleged affair between the erstwhile President and his intern. From the Starr investigation to the eventual impeachment, it had everything you could hope for from a political scandal. 1998-1999 threw the US in turmoil. The affair not only laid bare the lives of Clinton and Lewinsky but also challenged the sanctity of the country’s foundation. However, I want to focus on the penchant for criminality that remains embedded within the ‘coveted’ nature of the office along with Lewinsky’s glamorous 1998 shoot with Vanity Fair and her subsequent interview in 2018. (Note to self: Are the cleaning services of the White House lacking in merit? Ok. Sorry for this one).

The media reportage of the affair- the intersection of the public and private also highlighted the allegations of sexual assault against Clinton by a woman named Paula Jones in 1994. Furthermore, the then President, to “delay” his impeachment trial by the House, ordered air strikes against Iraq to eradicate the potential ‘weapons of mass destruction’, after Saddam Hussein refused the entry of UN Weapon Inspectors into the country. While a televised address and Starr’s mountain of evidence confirmed his infidelity, Jones’s allegations were dismissed by a settlement of $85,000. The latter makes it imperative to ask whether the people whom we choose to represent us are, in fact, capable. Moreover, why is no one diluting power with some water or soda? Damn.

Leaping forward in time to 2024. The snake bites its tail and Donald Trump gets a second term in the White House. He somewhat becomes emblematic of Clinton’s track record since he has also been accused of sexual harassment. The indictments for financial fraud and inciting violence in the Capitol after the 2020 elections, the ‘Presidential immunity’ in these judicial cases along with an abortion ban paint a dangerous picture of the political landscape. It must be noted that akin to the bombing of Iraq, Trump remains an unequivocal supporter of Israel. Although, yes, his term has been a witness to the much-awaited ceasefire only time will determine its culmination. In this light, it also becomes important to remember that Clinton was acquitted of all charges. A similarity can also be witnessed in the silence imposed on Trump’s and Clinton’s victims (and Lewinsky). This makes me wonder. Are we really letting the ‘bad boy syndrome’ trickle into the White House or in any political office for that matter? Why are good men (if there are any) always finishing last?

This transcendence of time opens the discourse around the overlapping boundaries of the personal and the political. To what extent can the difference be made between the two? Becoming a public figure comes with a responsibility to uphold a standard of composure and morality. Thus, is it possible to say that a man with a corrupt moral standard, regardless of the affair, is fit to be in any leading office? Is privacy becoming vintage? Do rounds and rounds of media speculation, in matters like these, amount to anything at all?

It is also important to remember that these are not the first examples of the abuse of power and they certainly won’t be the last.

Moving on to Lewinsky’s photoshoot with Vanity Fair in June 1998. Christopher Hitchens talks of her in conjunction with mythical figures like Helen of Troy, Theodora of Byzantium, fictional figures like Lady Macbeth, and their ‘physical manifestation’ i.e. Camilla Parker-Bowles. Hitchens’s airy and almost humorous ‘matter of fact’ tone adopts a neutral stance for Lewinsky. However, I believe, none of them “shook” men enough to shake history. Her alleged relationship with the President was ill-timed yet favorable since it magnified the twigs on which he was standing. History was meant to change its course. Men like these do not need to be shaken. They merely walk into the spotlight.

Also, yes. It was lowkey cool that she did it, according to Hitchens, “in the spirit of open government and also for the heck of it”. Plus, it goes without saying that she looked incredible in the photos. Take a look.

In 2018, however, Lewinsky described her run-in with Ken Starr to Vanity Fair, whilst asserting that she became a tool for the prosecution of the President in 1998. She added that for most of her 20s, amid the dissection of her sex life, she was forced to live in the “house of gaslight”. While this opens up another debate on the distinction between fact and gossip and the ‘sensationalism’ of news, it also serves as a reminder that women while becoming the impetus for a “better tomorrow” can also become collateral damage. Therefore, probably, her then photoshoot was her way of reclaiming her ‘self’ that had become a fascinating yet appalling ‘subject’. There are multiple opinions and only 1998 can itself talk for Lewinsky, Starr, and even Clinton.

Time chooses different roads to travel but it ultimately makes a circle of familiarity and repetition. We see a mirror of all the decisions we made thereby creating a sense of déjà vu. You could say that sometimes time is a report card you do not sign up for. While I still do not have the answer to the relevance of receiving the excruciating details of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, I do know that its outcome became a standpoint in American politics that unfortunately, brought negligible change. The clock is ticking and the world, as we know it, might lose its axis and only turn political. The clock is ticking and the choice is ours.