Of the many things that have been said about the agony of President Clinton’s impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives and the sham “trial” that resulted in his acquittal by the U.S. Senate, there seems to have been only one point upon which political factions of every persuasion found it possible to agree: that this whole sordid episode in the nation’s history was in many respects the culmination—though by no means the conclusion—of the culture war that has been raging in this country since the emergence of the radical counterculture in the 1960s. Those on the political Left who claimed that the impeachment of the president was really an impeachment of the 1960s weren’t entirely wrong. Neither were those on the political Right who had long feared the worst from the pot-smoking, draft-dodging, antiwar activist with a history of sexual misconduct who had come to occupy the White House. Both were reflecting upon ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase