What set the deadly spiral in motion was the Waco assault two years before, and the cover-up that followed. No official has ever lost a day's pay for precipitating the incineration of 80 people, most of them women and children, in the worst abuse of power since Wounded Knee a century ago. Instead of shame and accountability, the Clinton administration accused the victims of setting fire to themselves and their children, a posthumous smear that does not bear serious scrutiny. It then compounded the injustice by pushing for a malicious prosecution of the survivors. Nothing does more to sap the life of a democracy than the abuse of power.
Public trust is dangerously low.
According to polls, barely a quarter of the American people now feel that they can count on the federal government to do the right thing. A majority refuse to accept that Vincent Foster committed suicide, and they have good reason for their doubts. A police Polaroid shows a .22 calibre bullet wound in Foster's neck that the autopsy somehow failed to note. Even so, the truth is getting out. Unauthorised stories are reaching the public through the samizdat links of the Internet and talk radio.