Elian, Clinton, and Soccer Moms
Published May 05, 2000
Up until the release of the Watergate tapes, my Mother was a staunch Nixon supporter. But something happened to her when those tapes filled with expletives made their way into the nation's collective consciousness. It would be a few years before I suited up for my first match, but that was the moment when Nixon lost at least one Soccer Mom.
The seizing of Elian Gonzalez may have been Clinton's attempt at avoiding another Castro boatlift or ensuring victory for his wife Hillary in her New York Senate race and his vice president Al Gore in his race for the White House, but we may soon find that he will have accomplished just the opposite.
Numerous polls have indicated strong support for the action taken to remove little Elian, but buried in the polling data is one interesting tidbit: Support for the action was lowest among women.
For Gore and Clinton the would-be Senator, the move weakened them in several ways:
First it reminded those who were enraged by Ruby Ridge and Waco just exactly why they hated this administration so much at a time when the memories of those earlier events had begun to fade.
Second, the action made Gore look ineffectual because he, touted as the most effective and "in the loop" vice president in history, was unable to convince his own president and attorney general, that his was the right course.
Third, it neutralized two issues that would have been used in a devastating way by candidates Gore and Clinton against their opponents Bush and Guiliani.
In Giuliani's case he was most vulnerable on the issue of police brutality and it's a good bet that Hillary's advisors were preparing to attack him on that issue in the fall. Those plans will now have to be shelved, for the last thing candidate Hillary Clinton will want to get into is a protracted debate with her opponent on when and how state force should be used. Though far more horrible in scope, Giuliani's Amadou Diallo moment was not captured on film. On the other hand, the unforgettable image of Elian looking down the barrel of a sub-machine gun will continue to trouble most Americans, especially women.
As for the Governor of Texas he was most vulnerable in the upcoming campaign on the issues of guns and gun violence, and Gore operatives must have been salivating over the prospect of presenting -- to Soccer Moms and the nation -- Bush's attempts to make guns more accessible to Texans through concealed weapons legislation.
That was then.
In addition to inflaming right wing NRA types, the vivid pictures out of Miami remind ordinary voters why they used to distrust the gun control crowd and lends credence to the NRA's mantra that guns are necessary to protect ordinary citizens against the excessive power of the state. The argument usually sounds far-fetched to most Americans, but those three minutes in the Gonzalez home took away Gore's strongest issue against the Governor of Texas.
My mother is still a pretty good gauge of where the country is at and what will happen next. Months after she turned on Richard Nixon he was on a plane home to San Clemente, California. Shortly after the raid in Miami she was firing off protest e-mails to Clinton, Clinton and Gore. And she wanted to know where to reach Betty Mills, the shameful INS agent who didn't have the courage to, when faced with a rotten order from above, just say no.
Bill Clinton may have "saved" Elian, but in so doing he may very well have lost the elections that mattered most to him -- those of his wife and his vice president who would continue his legacy.
Time will tell how millions of Soccer Moms will deal this fall with those responsible for armed men storming into a house shouting, "Where the **** is the **** boy?"
Clinton may yet be a triple loser, for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has before it an extraordinary opportunity to teach a watching world what American democracy is all about-that our system of checks and balances allows for the Judicial branch to reign in the Executive.
Citing the obvious presence of coercion, the Court could rule that neither Elian nor his Father can make a decision freely on the issue of Elian's petition for asylum until his Father's immediate family in Cuba stands in its presence in Federal Court. And until then the boy stays.
That would be a historical moment rivaling the one captured by the photographer in Miami.
There are more than 30 different "Elian" conversations in our Forums section. To read what others in the Crosswalk.com community have to say, or to post your own opinion, visit Forums: The "Anything Elian" folder.
Mark Joseph is the author of Rock & Roll Rebellion: Why People of Faith Abandoned Rock Music and Why They're Coming Back.
The seizing of Elian Gonzalez may have been Clinton's attempt at avoiding another Castro boatlift or ensuring victory for his wife Hillary in her New York Senate race and his vice president Al Gore in his race for the White House, but we may soon find that he will have accomplished just the opposite.
Numerous polls have indicated strong support for the action taken to remove little Elian, but buried in the polling data is one interesting tidbit: Support for the action was lowest among women.
For Gore and Clinton the would-be Senator, the move weakened them in several ways:
First it reminded those who were enraged by Ruby Ridge and Waco just exactly why they hated this administration so much at a time when the memories of those earlier events had begun to fade.
Second, the action made Gore look ineffectual because he, touted as the most effective and "in the loop" vice president in history, was unable to convince his own president and attorney general, that his was the right course.
Third, it neutralized two issues that would have been used in a devastating way by candidates Gore and Clinton against their opponents Bush and Guiliani.
In Giuliani's case he was most vulnerable on the issue of police brutality and it's a good bet that Hillary's advisors were preparing to attack him on that issue in the fall. Those plans will now have to be shelved, for the last thing candidate Hillary Clinton will want to get into is a protracted debate with her opponent on when and how state force should be used. Though far more horrible in scope, Giuliani's Amadou Diallo moment was not captured on film. On the other hand, the unforgettable image of Elian looking down the barrel of a sub-machine gun will continue to trouble most Americans, especially women.
As for the Governor of Texas he was most vulnerable in the upcoming campaign on the issues of guns and gun violence, and Gore operatives must have been salivating over the prospect of presenting -- to Soccer Moms and the nation -- Bush's attempts to make guns more accessible to Texans through concealed weapons legislation.
That was then.
In addition to inflaming right wing NRA types, the vivid pictures out of Miami remind ordinary voters why they used to distrust the gun control crowd and lends credence to the NRA's mantra that guns are necessary to protect ordinary citizens against the excessive power of the state. The argument usually sounds far-fetched to most Americans, but those three minutes in the Gonzalez home took away Gore's strongest issue against the Governor of Texas.
My mother is still a pretty good gauge of where the country is at and what will happen next. Months after she turned on Richard Nixon he was on a plane home to San Clemente, California. Shortly after the raid in Miami she was firing off protest e-mails to Clinton, Clinton and Gore. And she wanted to know where to reach Betty Mills, the shameful INS agent who didn't have the courage to, when faced with a rotten order from above, just say no.
Bill Clinton may have "saved" Elian, but in so doing he may very well have lost the elections that mattered most to him -- those of his wife and his vice president who would continue his legacy.
Time will tell how millions of Soccer Moms will deal this fall with those responsible for armed men storming into a house shouting, "Where the **** is the **** boy?"
Clinton may yet be a triple loser, for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has before it an extraordinary opportunity to teach a watching world what American democracy is all about-that our system of checks and balances allows for the Judicial branch to reign in the Executive.
Citing the obvious presence of coercion, the Court could rule that neither Elian nor his Father can make a decision freely on the issue of Elian's petition for asylum until his Father's immediate family in Cuba stands in its presence in Federal Court. And until then the boy stays.
That would be a historical moment rivaling the one captured by the photographer in Miami.
There are more than 30 different "Elian" conversations in our Forums section. To read what others in the Crosswalk.com community have to say, or to post your own opinion, visit Forums: The "Anything Elian" folder.
Mark Joseph is the author of Rock & Roll Rebellion: Why People of Faith Abandoned Rock Music and Why They're Coming Back.
Originally published May 05, 2000.
