Clinton, Nixon and Watergate Today

Clinton, Nixon and Watergate Today

In 1972, I was just old enough to vote for the first time: Still in college and critically evaluating both parties and the candidates, i wanted to make a well informed decision. At that time, all draft deferments had been removed. My status was 1-A and with a low number of 47 in the draft lottery. The Democrats were for pulling out "right now". Nixon was touting "Peace with honor".

Initially, Senator Hubert Humphrey (D Minnasota) seemed to be the reasonable, comfortable candidate, but he spoke in political clichés and platitudes. Soon I preserved him to be a bafoon. Senator Eugene McCarthy (D Minnisota) offered specific plans fto boost jobs and the economy while supporting the poor; good things for all people. He seemed to have a real plan, including a "Reverse Income Tax" a bit like the current earned tax credit. At age 21, that sounded reasonable. But McCarthy's "plan" turned out to be just a bunch of ad-hoc statements that did not add-up. In the end I voted for Nixon, was not drafted and the Vietnam War was over (for us) by the time I graduated in 1973.

Then the Watergate $h!t hit the fan.

Today, most cannot remember the public's collective anxiety as the Watergate scandal evolved day-by-day in the papers and on TV. Feelings of betrayal, dismay, anxiety and anger were experienced by a large section of society when they saw the bald-faced lying that in the end included Nixon as the major player and source of the moral corruption that sought to use ultimate power to retain power. After he resigned, Nixon made explicit public statements that showed that he believed himself to actually be above the law.
I haven't felt like that since the Ervin Committee hearings on Watergate over forty years ago. At that time, people in high places were testifying —under oath —making conflicting statements. We knew that much of it was not true and yet there were Erlichman, Haldman, Mitchel, Cohlson et al straight faced lying to everyone on television—and we knew it. You could see it in their faces and hear it in their voices. Any conversation on some new emerging aspect of the scandal included shaking of heads and statements of disbelief regardless of party affiliation. No-one knew the truth, but everyone knew they were not telling the truth.

Today I feel the same way. The idea that someone in high office can say that the sky is red with indignant conviction, and when confronted with pictures of a deep blue sky, can "clarify" by saying, "Well of course I meant the sky on Mars is red.", disgusts me.

It is not, of course, just Clinton, but the whole Obama administration from gun-walking to debasing the currency, bankrupting the government and selective enforcement of The Nation's laws (I'll throw in Bush and weapons of mass destruction as well). Yet federal officials and beurocrats in all agencies at every level feel that they may do or say anything expedient to avoid accountability for incompetence, conflict of interest and blatant corruption. This rivals the arrogance of Richard Nixon and his aids in creating and defending the complex of political corruption we call Watergate.
Forty-two years later, I have the same feeling of impotent anger that I felt in the year I turned 21.