LETTERS A figure of fun
Sir: Matthew Parris's piece on Clinton (Another voice, 31 January) falls a long way below his usual standard of intellectual honesty. Let us replace his amiable conceit of left-handedness with homosexuality. Rational society has no problem with adult homosexuals pleasuring one another, pro- viding they do it privately and quietly and with no equine risk. (It is, of course, a dif- ferent matter when they combine this with an attempt to rewrite the traditional teach- ing of an established Church). A severer view is taken when an older person seduces a child; and when the seduction takes place in the context of, say, a children's home, condemnation is unequivocal. What is involved in this sort of case is not just sexu- ality, but such wider issues as trust and responsibility and power.
What is alleged in regard to President Clinton is that the most powerful person on the planet had an exploitative physical rela- tionship with an employee more than 20 years his junior, and then used that power in the first place to persuade the woman to deny it on oath, and subsequently to destroy her credibility. In so doing he ren- dered both of them liable to criminal charges for which five years' imprisonment is a normal penalty. It seems at the moment that the American public, riding on the crest of a wave of economic bliss, would rather believe their President, his dreadful record notwithstanding, than his accusers. But the same opinion polls have made it clear that if, despite his improper exercise of power, he is eventually shown to be a liar, they will as fully condemn him. Mean- while the leader of the Western world is a derisory figure of fun.
Incidentally, the Tricky Dicky caption to your page 6 cartoon seems unnecessarily unkind to President Nixon. His crooked- ness was politically motivated, not a trivial exercise in physical self-gratification. Bent Willy would perhaps be more appropriate.
John Christopher
1 Whitefriars, Rye, East Sussex
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