Stop Making Excuses for Trump Based on the Behavior of Past Presidents

"I'm talking to you—the unoriginal Trump supporter who brings up Bill Clinton as a defense of Trump’s behavior and liberal hypocrisy in America."

Bill Clinton Trump Tweet
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Here is a really fun game. Try writing in public that President Trump makes you feel uncomfortable because of the mounting sexual assault allegations against him, or that you feel rage because he said he would not sexually assault women who were too ugly.

And then wait for it…

Wait for it….


There he is. The unoriginal Trump supporter who brings up Bill Clinton as a defense of Trump’s behavior and liberal hypocrisy in America. Why are people so mean to poor Trump when Bill Clinton is President of the World in Perpetuity and every day we give him a thousand kisses?

First of all, I do not know anyone who goes around talking about how much they love Bill Clinton. Maybe they are out there, but, while I hear people mourn Obama almost every week, I don’t hear a ton of nostalgia regarding Bill.

That may be because when Bill Clinton was President I was six years old.

I would not have voted for Bill Clinton at the time, because I loved George H. W. Bush. I loved him because he hated eating broccoli, and so did I. This was first experience of understanding why someone would vote for someone. What can I say? He was a man who got the issues I cared about at that time.

"It’s 2017. I’d really prefer to pick a candidate who didn’t sexually harass women at all."

I would not vote for Bill Clinton today, at 30, because I think he sexually harassed women. I guess we don’t have a tape recording of him loudly declaring as much, but it seems likely. I don’t think his personal attitudes translated into his policies. In his State of the Union address he pushed for equal work for equal pay. He firmly supported a woman’s right to choose. He signed legislation that allowed for 12 weeks paid leave for new parents. He signed the Violence against Women act to combat domestic violence. (For reference on that last point—Trump’s budget reform would dramatically negatively impact domestic violence shelters and services.

I suppose if I had to choose between A) someone I thought sexually harassed women who promised not to enact reforms that would hurt me, a woman, personally, or B) a man who sexually harassed women and would also enact reforms to hurt me, a woman, I’d pick the former. But it’s 2017. I’d really prefer to pick a candidate who didn’t sexually harass women at all.

Which brings us back to the fact that Bill Clinton was President 24 years ago. People who were not born when Bill Clinton was President might be voting in our next midterms. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that, in the course of a generation, social mores might have slightly improved. Like for instance, maybe we could vote for a President who doesn’t sexually assault women.

Bill Clinton was President back when you were using a VCR to record Cheers.

Loudly declaring that a President of the past’s actions make the current day President’s acceptable is absurd. If a President made a racist comment and you shouted “WELL WOODROW WILSON MADE BLACK PEOPLE WORK IN CAGES” (he did—Woodrow Wilson was a genuine monster), that would not make the current President’s racist comment okay. It would certainly be an interesting historical fact! But it would only be that­—because it was something a horrible President did a long time ago. The world moves on, and thankfully, times change. They move towards being more decent to more people. Those kinds of attitudes are no longer acceptable.

Or, at least, they weren’t, until Trump. One of those frustrating aspects of his presidency is feeling like we’ve lost some of the ground we’ve gained socially. Racists feel comfortable saying racist things again—and indeed, will yell about political correctness if you say those things make you uncomfortable. People who accept the tenets of Nazi philosophy are now just people with “different opinions” (which, indeed, I don’t think has been true since the 1930s.) And people feel the President should be able to demean women as freely as one did a quarter of a century ago.

"Declaring that a past President's actions make the current day President’s acceptable is absurd."

This seems to be what his supporters meant by “making America great again.”

If you feel that it’s okay for Trump to sexually harass women in this day and age because you think that is fun and cool, well, okay. I disagree very strongly, but you can say that. But trying to justify his actions because a President a long time ago did it, falls flat when some of the voters you are yelling at do not even remember Clinton’s presidency, because they were tiny toddlers at the time.

If you want to say it’s fine, go ahead, own it. Say that you believe women are objects for male sexual pleasure and their boundaries aren’t a big deal, and then we can talk. But please stop hiding behind “but another guy did it so it’s ok” excuses. Because it’s not ok. It wasn’t ok then, and it’s certainly not ok now.

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