There are certainly elements of truth to all of this.But the soldiers in the Watergate wars overstate their case, happy to add layer upon layer of Shakespearean pathos and drama to the events, while failing to add any critical thinking or historical context, pushing instead the same, tired conventional wisdom. Hundreds of thousands of protesters swarmed Washington with the announced intention of shutting down the government.
It demonstrated, once again, that Lord Acton was right. This leads to a proliferation of corruption and abuses of power; the abandonment of long-standing norms that are critical to a well-functioning political system; and even criminal activity. American policing is heading for a crisis. The scandal is the focus of a documentary titled Watergate — Or: How We Learned to Stop an Out of Control President. While these reform efforts have not been uniformly successful, they reflect the resolve of the policymakers of that era, who had a broad understanding of the abuses that needed to be addressed and who were willing to take broad actions to address them.This era of reform demonstrates at least two important lessons that apply to current efforts to prepare the post-Trump policy response. Laws passed in that period have transformed, among other things, the federal budget process, government practices for protecting individuals’ personal information, and oversight of the intelligence community.
Both the Inspector General Act and the Civil Service Reform Act responded to concerns about Nixon’s misuse of government power and personnel, including to attack political enemies. Donald Trump sometimes calls the coronavirus “the invisible enemy.” Occasionally he comes up with an evocative phrase. In 1972 America was still mired in the Cold War. Bombings were commonplace. What it actually does is provide a lesson on the importance of vigilance.
For me the more significant Watergate lessons — and the more relevant for today — are broader than what has been pushed on the American public these past four decades.Watergate was in large part about the arrogance of power. Caricatures of the evil Nixon don’t help us learn how to counter abuses of power.
Older men, full of themselves, and their youthful, ambitious subordinates thought that the ends justified the means and that they could get away with illegal wiretappings, break-ins, and the targeting of their political enemies because they controlled the levers of power.Congress and the courts asserted themselves and proved them wrong.
Like their post-Watergate predecessors, policymakers must be ready to seize the opportunity to advocate for bold responses that do not just restore the prior status quo but also make fundamental positive changes. To mark the 40th anniversary of Watergate, Common Cause convened Watergate figures, policy experts, journalists and others on March 13-14 to explore lessons learned from that dramatic period in history, and consider their resonance today as we seek to strengthen our democracy.
the conversation, but to change the country.
Since the end of World war II, the conduct of U.S. foreign relations has been implemented according to the rules and norms of war.
Congress utilized the opportunity to address long-standing problems that were far bigger than one individual.
The killings at Kent State occurred and the reaction was tremendous, as mobs took over campuses.
A president who is dishonest and unethical and who puts a premium on personal loyalty will fill his administration with dishonest, unethical loyalists. It was, indeed, unprecedented in many ways, and the ugly array of crimes, misplaced loyalties, immaturity, and hubris speaks for itself.
Ultimately, the result is a multitude of scandals, which creates a multitude of opportunities for policy changes.In the past year and a half, the Trump administration has already engaged in extensive misconduct—including government policymaking handed off to self-dealing industry leaders;Just as in the post-Nixon era, if policymakers are prepared, efforts to address these Trump administration scandals have the potential to be wide-ranging. An ACLU Kentucky communications associate criticized Transylvania University on Saturday for accepting Nick Sandmann, the high school student who sued major news outlets for their coverage of a controversial interaction he and several of his classmates had with a Native American activist. More than 17,000 troops and police surrounded the White House to protect it. And the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was the result of the unexpected discovery of corporate slush funds used for foreign bribes by some of the same corporations that had been making illegal political contributions. "However," he added, "I came away from my experience with Watergate feeling quite positive about many people who were truly public servants. By adopting quarantines, the cities empty, and the protective presence of citizens is withdrawn from shopping ...