The Case for Community Service
President Clinton has spent
the last six years lecturing Americans about the glories of community service.
AmeriCorps is his pet project, and his administration has encouraged service as
an alternative to jail time. Well, now is the chance for the president to put
his ideas to work for himself. Clinton and his allies are desperately seeking a
dignified way out of Flytrap: How about community service? We should let the
president serve out his term, but let's make him really serve.
The basic
conundrum for those who want Flytrap to end is this: Any remedy lenient enough
for Clinton diehards will enrage the right half of the country, and any remedy
punitive enough for conservatives will enrage the left half. A solution must
simultaneously 1) minimize carnage to the presidency and the country; 2) be
vindictive enough to sate the GOP; 3) be soft enough to pass the Democrats; and
4) allow us to put the scandal aside (or mostly aside) for the remainder of his
term.
None of the proposed remedies suffices. House Republicans,
especially those on the judiciary committee, are set on eviscerating Clinton
and won't settle for anything as gentle as censure (even if Clinton does agree
to take his licks standing in the well of the House). A censure plus a fine
also dissatisfies conservatives, because it suggests Clinton can buy pardon. On
the other hand, impeachment would be bloody, endless, and intolerable to most
voters. And resignation would set the horrific precedent that the media and the
opposition can drum a president out of office if they shout enough.
But
community service, plus censure, might succeed. Every week until the end of his
term, Clinton would spend a few hours on some direct, necessary community
service. Congress would decide--after negotiation with the president--the total
number of hours and the kind of work (more on the specifics of this later). The
service would be an everyday obligation for Clinton, with no presidential photo
ops and no special treatment.
What would be the benefits of this regimen? For
starters, Clinton would make tangible reparations for the damage he has
inflicted to society. Many Americans are infuriated by Clinton's notion that
apology is action. His prolific, ever savvier apologies are selfish: They are
designed to make him look better. He has announced that he has accepted
responsibility, but what exactly has he done about it? Redemption, in most
religious and ethical traditions, requires deeds. In service, Clinton could not
allow words to substitute for actions. He would have to act.
Service
would meet another requirement of Flytrap punishment: It would humble him.
Clinton has suggested that he can best make amends by being an excellent
president. But we require more visible evidence of his regret. Being president
is no suffering for him. In fact, being president reinforces his worst
instincts. His chief Flytrap sin is believing that normal rules and moral codes
don't apply to him, that everyone else exists to do his bidding. His punishment
must remind him that he is merely a man, and so he must be chopped down to
man-size. In service, he could not use his power to bully others. In service,
he would, for the first time in 20 years, take orders instead of give them,
cater to others instead of being catered to. That might begin to cure, or at
least temper, his wicked and dangerous sense of entitlement.
The humbling of Clinton would also serve a political
function: It would placate conservatives, especially if service were combined
with a haymaker congressional censure. The image of Clinton scraping graffiti
off some high school might persuade enough Republicans to sign on.
Service, too, might be
cathartic enough to liberate us from our Flytrap obsession. We would no longer
need to debate dada legal technicalities and gasp over sordid details.
Clinton's critics won't be able to gripe that he escaped scot-free: He will be
paying the price, quietly, every week.
Service
might even benefit the president in the way he cares most about. It must
devastate Clinton--a president obsessed with his legacy--that his place in
history is now secure: He's the reckless lech who ruined his presidency for a
22-year-old intern. Whether he resigns, is impeached, or is censured, that will
be his epitaph. If Clinton does community service, he will still be remembered
as the reckless lech, but he may also be remembered as the reckless lech who
had the grace to make amends for his sins.
There are obstacles to Clinton's community
service, but they are surmountable. Would he have time? We can't expect him to
skip G-7 summits so that he can collect roadside trash. But he managed to
squeeze Monica Lewinsky (or rather, she squeezed him) into his schedule--not to
mention dawn-to-dusk fund raising--so surely he can squeeze in a few hours of
good works on Saturdays.
Some will
object that service, like censure, is not in the Constitution. Congress cannot
impose community service on the president without his permission--that would be
an unconstitutional "bill of attainder." (
Slate
's "Explainer"
examines the "bill of attainder" at greater length here.) But if Clinton consents, censure and community service can
proceed. And he would certainly consent if the alternative was impeachment.
The thorniest question, of course, is: What kind of
service? It must be dignified: It cannot tarnish the presidency, and it must be
acceptable to Clinton. (So bedpans and chain gangs are out. Sorry, Rep. Bob
Barr, R-Ga.) Yet it must be punitive enough that Republicans will be satisfied.
(It can't be, for example, any activity that lets Clinton talk, even though
that's what he does best. Just as drunken drivers convicted of manslaughter are
forced to recount their sins to high schoolers, Clinton could probably give a
superb heart-to-heart speech on the perils of infidelity. But he would enjoy it
too much for it to be a suitable punishment.)
Fortunately, a perfect model
for such honorable yet humble service already exists, and it even has a
presidential imprimatur: Habitat for Humanity. Clinton should build houses for
the poor with Jimmy Carter. Or, better yet, he should build houses for the poor
under the supervision of Jimmy Carter. Now that's a Flytrap remedy even
Clinton's worst enemies can love.
