“We speak less of principle and more of personality now, a politics that mimics tabloid celebrity culture.”

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In a thanksgiving sermon in 1795, Episcopal Bishop William White sought to, “expose the folly and the mischiefs of the assertion, that a bad man in private life is not, on that account, the worse citizen or ruler of the state.” Even then, there was an attempt to sever morality from politics, to say the character of the officeholder did not matter so long as preferred policy outcomes (or saucy Tweets) resulted. Twenty-five years ago, our political culture was made worse by the Clinton impeachment. Politics was made more nasty and personal, yes. But fundamentally, we came to expect less of our leaders and, ultimately, of ourselves. That bode ill for what eventually came, wherein we have become more detached from proper notions of the common good, of the moral law, and of the purposes of human life and of human government as a result.

I don’t think it was “the impeachment” that made things worse. It was the act that necessitated the impeachment. Conservatives weren’t wrong to go after Clinton for this. Today’s ‘conservatives’ are wrong to abandon the value of character and principle they were willing to fight for 25 years ago.