Don't ... Stop ... Thinking About the Secretary of Compost

Despite Mixed Reviews, Clinton's Early Record is Impressive - We Should Get Behind Him

by Mark Worth

The Free Press

As promised, Bill Clinton has been as prolific during his first three months in office as FDR was in his fabled first 100 Days. To the added benefit of the country, however, Clinton hasn't been limited to dealing merely with economic affairs; quite the opposite, Clinton's reforms are all over the political, social and environmental map.

Though many people probably would disagree, we think Clinton's first quarter has been an amazing display of willpower, wisdom and sincerity - all during a time in US history said to have the worst economic problems since the Depression, and cursed by allegedly intractable social and environmental difficulties.

From what we can tell, Clinton hasn't let himself become paralyzed by how bad things seem to be. He appears to be more concerned with carrying out the promises he made during last year's campaign. And with only a few admittedly nagging exceptions, he's doing it.

For those who haven't been keeping track, here's a list of reforms - in no particular order - that the Clinton administration has either already carried out or currently is pushing. (When you get to the end, you'll see why we think it's important that you recognize and, where appropriate, praise Clinton's handiwork.)

• Overturning the abortion counseling "gag rule" at federally funded clinics.
• Forming a national health-care reform commission.
• Approving Oregon's progressive health care reforms.
• Pursuing a "whole ecosystem" approach saving endangered species.
• Increasing income taxes on corporations and the rich people.
• Signing the global biodiversity and greenhouse gas reduction treaties that Bush snubbed.
• Increasing the earned-income tax credit for lower-income families.
• Levying an energy tax that encourages environmentally friendly energy sources.
• Cutting defense spending quicker than George Bush proposed.
• Depersonalizing the United States' squabble with Iraq.
• Naming a secretary of compost.
• Elevating the head of the Environmental Protection Agency to cabinet level.
• Becoming the first president to meet with gays and lesbians in the White House.
• Adding $1 - $2 in excise tax per pack of cigarettes to fund health care reforms.
• Appointing the first woman attorney general.
• Disbanding Dan Quayle's insidious Council on Competitiveness.
• Creating an Economic Security Council.
• Restoring federal funding for abortions for lower-income women.
• Lifting the ban on PATCO, the air-traffic controllers' union.
• Barring companies from permanently replacing striking workers.
• Holding the Northwest Timber Summit.
• Letting his vice president take on important tasks.
• Encouraging his spouse to engage in meaningful policy work.
• Spending billions a year on job creation.
• Forming a "national service program" for recent college graduates.
• Setting true market prices for timber, minerals and other resources extracted from federal lands.
• Allowing federal employee health-insurance plans to cover abortion.
• Increasing hundredfold the amount of federal money spent on pollution control.
• Targeting pharmaceutical companies for overpricing drugs.
• Restoring federal funding for fetal tissue research.
• Guaranteeing free, universal childhood immunizations.
• Restoring funding for international abortion and family-planning providers.
• Fully funding the Head Start program.
• Lifting the ban on admitting HIV-positive immigrants.
• Allowing women in the military to serve on warships when in battle.
• Making it significantly easier for people to register to vote.
• Granting tax breaks for investment in new industrial and manufacturing plants.

These are just the things we know about. Pretty amazing, particularly when you consider that we're not talking about the Bill Clinton of 1978, when, during his first term as governor of Arkansas, he managed to alienate almost every interest group in the state with his cavalier, get-out-of-my-face political style.

It's 1993 now, and we're dealing with the new compromising, conciliatory Bill Clinton. Even still, he is standing up to the country's challenges and his detractors aggressively and vigorously.

His first three months have been virtually monopolized by un-screwing up what the Brothers of Doom spent 12 years screwing up. It is critical that we acknowledge Clinton's early accomplishments. Here are a few reasons why:

• Public support is the key to preventing Republicans and rebel Democrats from killing Clinton's reforms in Congress. It's also necessary to get Congress off its collective ass. In the Great Apolitical Age of the 1980s and early 1990s, a disaffected populous enabled House and Senate members - on both sides of the aisle - to engage in brainless political gamesmanship instead of pursuing needed reforms.
• Widespread support for Clinton's ideas, particularly of those that ultimately succeed, will codify their place in the history books. Favorable treatment by social and political chroniclers would give the Clinton agenda the favorable legacy it needs to ensure its continuation into the 21st century.
• How people perceive Clinton's ideals now will form the foundation for what they think about him in 1996. People never liked George Bush or what he "believed." He lost. We need to be reminded that it's OK to like the president and his ideals, and it's essential for re-election.
• The more people who embrace Clinton's agenda, the more radical Republicans will have to become in order to preserve their ideological distinction from Democrats. The mainstreaming of a draft-dodging, former dope-smoking president is the GOP's worst nightmare.
• With the addition of popular support, Clinton could become the first president since Kennedy to attract both critical acclaim from the punditocracy and the sympathy of the masses (though in JFK's case, both have eroded badly over 30 years).
• Perhaps above all, Clinton has good ideas, and they deserve the support they need to work. Plus, if you don't mind us saying so, we would like the country to get back on its feet.

Don't get us wrong - we're not trying to deify the guy. Clinton's waffling on the Haitian immigrant issue, flip-flopping on the middle-class tax cut, continued support for the Strategic Defense Initiative, handing cabinet-job gifts to sleazebags Ron Brown and Lloyd Bentsen, capitulating on the proposed energy tax, and his cronyist approach to political appointments all are disturbing. He must be reminded that we are watching him. As gratuitous opposition must be avoided, so must blind support.

But we think these missteps are greatly outweighed by Clinton's worthy programs. In our view, Clinton has elevated himself far above the Lesser-of-all-Evils label of last fall's campaign.

Left-wingers are great at fomenting opposition. But with a liberal in the White House, now's the time to generate some positive vibes.

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Contents on this page were published in the May, 1993 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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