William Jefferson Clinton's Psychologyton's (then) four-year-old brother tried to protect his mother one
evening by dragging into the house a large stick he could hardly
carry(1994a, 135).
Mrs. Kelley and her children moved out of the house, and she filed
for divorce. Once again coming to her aid, Clinton gave a deposition
to his mother's attorney to support her case. He has said elsewhere
that his stepfather "genuinely did love me, and I genuinely did love
him" (Cliff and Alter 1992, 37). Mrs. Kelley reports that, through
everything, "Bill never stopped loving Roger Clinton" (1994a, 169).
Given those feelings for his stepfather, testifying against him must
have been a very difficult emotional task for Clinton.^5
The divorce was finalized in May, but Mrs. Kelley began to relent
almost immediately. She did so, she says, because her then ex-hus-
band came around, acted so pitiful, and promised that this time he
would really change. Understandably, Clinton was against his
mother's remarriage; she quotes him as telling her, "that would be a
mistake" (1994a, 149). After a short period, she did change her
mind, and they were remarried three months after the divorce was
finalized.
Consider what effect these events and his mother's behavior must
have had on Clinton and his ability to trust. Roger Clinton had
struck his wife on a number of occasions and had threatened her chil-
dren.^6 She had at last separated from this abusive situation, seeking
her son's help to do so by having him submit an affidavit against the
only father he had known. Then, impulsively, she returned herself
and her children to the same dangerous and unpleasant situation. In
returning herself and her children to a set of circumstances in which
all had suffered emotionally (and she physically), she betrayed her
own and her family's emotional well-being and sense of physical
security (cf. Kelley 1994a, 134). She specifically betrayed the com-
mitments her son had made to help her and his family, first by
repeatedly standing up to his stepfather at some risk to himself and
second by submitting an affidavit against him. Her remarriage sub-
jected them all again to the situation they had escaped and rendered
Clinton's stands against his father both at home and in the courts
null and void. Clinton made an important, sincere, and difficult
emotional commitment to his mother, and she responded by first
making use of it and then disowning it.