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33 J. Value Inquiry 1 (1999)

handle is hein.journals/jrnlvi33 and id is 1 raw text is: Ld The Journal of Value Inquiry 33: 1-4, 1999 0 © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. EDITORIAL No Apology THOMAS MAGNELL Editor-in-Chief The President of the United States has been impeached. It is a momentous event in the history of the Republic. Only one other President has been impeached, and he was not elected to the office. This is truly a first. The impeachment has failed to result in the removal of the President from office, the requisite two-thirds of the Senate lacking the will to convict him. But we have a shamed President. Or have we? Shortly after the vote of impeachment, William Jefferson Clinton held an eerie celebratory party on the South Lawn of the White House. Certainly it had the appearance of celebration and was perhaps meant to, though anything more unfitting would be hard to imagine. As well, it put forward the face of celebrity, as a gathering of celebrities, where high value is attached to notoriety for its own sake. The idea of politicians as celebrities is not exactly news. But the idea of making light of an impeachment, particularly by the impeached, should be a source of reflection. When later asked how he felt about the course of the day after the vote was taken, the President is reported to have replied, not bad. If the polls are to be believed, well over half the citizens feel the same way. This is not altogether surprising. As Bertrand Russell remarked in one of his less known books, Power: In a democracy, a majority can only turn against the government by first admitting to themselves that they were mistaken in formerly thinking well of their chosen leaders, which is difficult and unpleasant. But the struthious sentiment is disturbing. The level of public concern about the impeachment has been as loud as a lute in a railroad station at rush hour. More attention was given to the trial in a silly California court of an ex-football player for murdering his wife than for the trial in the United States Senate of the President for lying under oath and obstruction of justice. This is no hyperbole. The ex-football player's trial was given interminable coverage by all the television networks. The networks even went so far as to provide split- screen coverage of the verdict when its announcement happened to coincide with one of the annual State of the Union speeches by the President. In contrast, after perfunctory coverage of the start of the trial in the Senate, the major

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