"Impeachment presiden adalah suatu peristiwa konflik politik, dilemmatis, Iuar biasa, dan sensitif bagi rakyat dan bangsa Amerika, guna mewujudkan nilai-nilai budaya demokrasi. Dilematis, dalam arti karena wacana impeachment yang kontroversial akibat misinterpretasi dan miskonsepsi terhadap pasal-pasal konstitusi yang beresiko tinggi bagi sejarah dan citra bangsa dikemudian hari jika gegabah membuat keputusan menurunkan seorang presiders yang popular dimata rakyat. Presiden Bill Clinton dipersalahkan atas dasar etika amoral tapi dia tidak bersalah menurut hukum dan konstitusi, karena tindak amoral tidak tertuang dalam tuntutan impeachment. Luar biasa dalam arti sangat langka terjadi walaupun ada preseden terdahulu tahun 1 868 terhadap Presiden Andrew Johnson. Justru itu, proses impeachment menuntut kebijaksanaan penuh kehati-hatian serta pertimbangan matang bagi semua pihak. Sensitif maksudnya karena proses impeachment menuntut perhatian serius rakyat Amerika menyangkut status presiden mereka karena presiden merupakan simbol negara, kedudukan paling terhormat dan agung bagi masyarakat Amerika.
Konflik kepentingan dari kelompok oposisi partai dan kelompok agamais konservatif telah memanfaatkan wacana agama dibalik konspirasi perebutan kekuasaan. Mayoritas opini publik yang berkembang dan sikap pragmatisme pemikiran generasi modern masyarakat Amerika berpikir realistis dan sanggupmembilah privacy dari dinas pemerintahan. Mereka menyetujui pelaksanaan impeachment tapi menolak memberhentikan Clinton. Dengan solusi yang tepat, Senat Amerika mengakomodir aspirasi rakyat tersebut sehingga impeachment berakhir gagal.
Aspek-aspek positif profesionalisme, prestasi kinerja Clinton ikut mempengaruhi gagalnya tuntutan impeachment terhadap dirinya karena dia berhasil menjadikan booming-nya perekonomian Amerika, menutup deficit anggaran Federal yang minus $.290 milliar sampai akhir 1992, sehingga surplus $.9.5 milliar tahun 1999, mereformasi pendidian, meningkatkan kesejahteraan sosial rakyat, GDP dan income per kapita rakyat.
Penelitian ini bertujuan memperlihatkan bagaimana konflik politik yang terjadi dan opini masyarakat yang berkembang di Amerika dalam polarisasi pro dan kontra opini terhadap impeachment Presiden Clinton. Dalam penelitian ini penulis menggunakan pendekatan kwalitatif serta kajian dengan metode analisis deskriptif-interpretatif dan metode content analysis. Buku-buku dan bahan-bahan ilmiah kepustakaan digunakan sebagai teori pendukung terhadap analisis data-data tertulis yang relevan dari media peta, koran-koran, majalah, jurnal, internet, proquest dan lain-lainnya.
The Impeachment of President Bill Clinton, apparently is a political event, on the horns of dilemma, unusual, and very sensitive for all the Peoples of the United States to implement the values of American Democracy. A dilemma here implies that the discourse of impeachment toward Bill Clinton is very controversial due to the fact of misinterpretation, and misperception about the Constitution which is very risky for the country in the long future to unseat the popular president like Bill Clinton. Clinton is blamed in terms of moral-ethic but not in terms of Laws and Constitution. It is unusual because it is very uncommon, and scarcely happening, though, there was a previous precedent toward the impeachment president Andrew Johnson in 1868. Therefore, the process of impeachment should be carefully handled, with a wise consideration for all sides. Sensitive here implies that the impeachment process requires serious attention from American Peoples concerning the status of their president because a president is a noble symbol of the Nation and highly honorable for all Americans Conflict of interest from opposition party, and interest group of religious conservatives, have made use the religious discourse as the reason behind the conspiracy to unseat President Clinton. Majority of opinion growing in American societies, as well as the pragmatic attitude of American modern societies, think realistically to isolate the matter of privacy from the state duties. The accurate solution of Senate could considerably accommodate the people aspiration so that the impeachment process finally resulted in failure. Positive aspects of Clinton., his professional performance, and effective lobbies, have exactly influenced the decision of impeachment process. In addition, prestigious performance and popularity of Clinton have made spectacular achievements in American History, to push America as the world leader, and to pursue the American dreams "the City upon the Hill". Majority of American peoples refused to unseat Clinton from White House due to his prestigious success in his efforts to make economy of America booming, to cut the deficit federal budget from 1290 billion in 1992 to surplus $.9,5 billion in 1999, to reform education, and social security. The goal of the research is to show how the growing issues between pro and contra towards impeachment President Clinton. The research of this thesis uses the qualitative-approach with the deep studies by means of the descriptive interpretative-analysis and the methods of content analysis. Books and scientific materials from library are used as the theories to support the analysis toward the relevant-written articles collected from multiple-resources such as books, and mass media press, such as magazines, journals, bulletins, newspapers, internets, and pro-quests."
Jakarta: Program Pascasarjana Universitas Indonesia, 2001
