Opinion: Impeachment and the Internet

The impeachment of Bill Clinton over the wishes of a majority of the American people ushers in a new and dismal era of deepest cynicism and the decline of participatory government. The ruling class knows what's best for America, the electorate be damned.

Let us not forget, however, that it was the selfish, small man from Arkansas who put us in the mess with his low-life behavior and his pathological lying on a Nixonian scale. In the twisted logic of the spear carriers for impeachment, Clinton got caught in a lie while Nixon only covered up the dirty work of others working for him.

Clinton is Nixon with a human face.

Yes, we are a nation of laws and no man or woman — president or pauper — is above the law. But the president's sins are, constitutionally speaking, low crimes and misdemeanors. The U.S. Constitution does not offer perfect justice, and a constitutional lawyer would be hard pressed to make the case that the Framers anticipated that the dalliances of the chief executive would force a constitutional crisis. Either way, Bill Clinton is going to pay the ultimate price to uphold this principle — and the rest of us get to clean up after him.

In the end, though, the political reality is that this pulp-fiction scandal is about politicians screwing each other. This is what the American political system has come to. Tom "the Hammer" DeLay, the Texas bug exterminator and House majority whip, wins the day for the forces of reaction. The liberal whiners with their 60s values have been vanquished.

Precisely how much damage DeLay, Henry Hyde and the other bomb throwers in the House of Representatives — "the People's House," according to the U.S. Constitution — inflict on the country is uncertain. But damage us it does.

Unfortunately for the newly powerful electronics industry, it must find a way to play the political game in a place that has become the snake pit of democracy. Will the industry play the Washington game like all those who came before it, spreading the money and cutting deals? Can the best product ever produced by the high-tech industry, the Internet, democratize politics or merely speed up the process of making short-sighted decisions that benefit the few over the interests of the many?

Some historians think the Internet is the first technological tool capable of shifting the balance in America away from our Republican form of government in which a ruling class calls the shots. Could the Internet shrink our vast country, ushering in a more democratic form of government along the lines of the Greek city-states where all had a voice in the affairs of state?

In short, can the Internet put the "demos" back in democracy? Or, as the House Judiciary Committee views it, is the Net merely a conduit for rapidly disseminating unfiltered allegations of political wrongdoing?

America, Lincoln said, is the last best hope of Earth. Is the Internet the last best hope for American democracy?

Maybe. Politics at the national level is in the grip of a powerful few. The political system is rigged, and there is precious little individuals can do to offset the influence of powerful corporate interests. This does not mean, however, the end of representative government. Not if we citizens honor our obligation to act in a democracy. Good a tool as it is, the Internet isn't the answer to our political ills. The answer is to use it in a way that will make politicians accountable again. If we don't, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

As an editor of mine used to say, "The people get what they deserve."