“Clintonism” is not an idea, or a program; still less is it a principle. It represents what might be termed — were it not for its murk — the distilled essence of consensus politics. Unremarkable in its constituent elements, which are a mixture of opportunist statecraft, crony capitalism, “divide and rule” identity politics, and populist manipulation, Clintonism has nonetheless raised these ordinary practices to the level of theory. It has succeeded, argues the author, because of a stealthy appeal to the waning and insecure forces of an American liberalism gone bad.

Christopher Hitchens followed Governor Clinton through New Hampshire in 1992, and has remained an assiduous student of his methods ever since. In Ask Not, Tell Not, he profiles the rise and decline of some prominent Clintonoids, from George Stephanopoulos to the First Lady. He scrutinizes the debased new language in which the discourse of Clintonism has been couched, and proposes that, if successful, the Clinton machine will become the model of pseudo-democracy for the coming century.

In the midst of her Senate Campaign Hillary Rodham Clinton’s past has caught up with her in the form of several new reports on Travelgate, Whitewater, and extraordinary profits from trading in the commodities market. But most of all she has to contend with this new edition of Christopher Hitchens's New York Times Bestseller. While her complicity in her husband's deceptive triangulations was never ignored by Hitchens, an entirely new chapter in this edition concentrates on the scandalous public political somersaulting she has demonstrated in her Senate campaign “that is in the few occasions that her ... chloroform rhetoric” has not itself been an obvious sign of falsity. In this new, paperback, edition Christopher Hitchens further bolsters his thesis that the President's behavior in lying to government, media and the electorate about his sexual encounters is consistent with his systematic abuse of power in the pursuit of personal ambition. Looking towards the 2000 election Hitchens argues more forcefully than ever that the legacy of Bill Clinton is the expiration of American liberalism. And he goes further: “In Hillary Rodham’s ongoing campaign ... it enters the moment of the purely amnesiac.”

“You don't buy Christopher Hitchens's new book because you want to find out whether Bill Clinton is really as terrible a liar as some people say he is. You buy it because you know he is a terrible liar, and the invitation to have a pungent fellow like Christopher Hitchens confirm every prejudice you ever had on the subject, plus a few you might not even have known you had, is an invitation you cannot resist.” — Louis Menand, New York Times Magazine

“Well-travelled, hyper-educated, pissed-off, always funny, Christopher Hitchens has no equal in American journalism.” — Voice Literary Supplement

“With a witty bluntness uncommon in today's political discourse, Hitchens boldly puts the pieces of the Clinton puzzle together...” — New York Times Book Review

“In this compelling, disturbing, entertaining, necessary book ... Hitchens raises questions that cannot be ignored.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review

“What a treat this nasty little bonbon it!” — Seattle Weekly

Christopher Hitchens lives in Washington, D.C. and writes for Slate and the Daily Mirror and is contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly and Vanity Fair.

 

 
Publication
Paper: July 2000

150 pages

Paper
ISBN-13: 978 1 85984 284 3
$12 / £7 / CAN$14




Other Verso books by
Christopher Hitchens:

The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice

Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger

The Elgin Marbles: Should They Be Returned to Greece?

Unacknowleged Legislation:
Writers in the Public Sphere

For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports

The Trial of Henry Kissinger