27 July 1974 plus 50

Thoughts on actions and consequences

People reflect on the 1960s as a period of radical transformation but I would argue perhaps the following decade was more consequential. You let me know how it strikes you upon finishing, please.

Fifty years ago today the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee unveiled articles of impeachment only the second time in our history. In case are unaware of the background, President Richard Nixon became the subject of Congressional hearings over a cover up he engaged in relating to his knowledge of and attempt to obscure a role in the Republican operatives’ June 1972 break in at the Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Hotel. He was not a victim, on other words, but an active participant in his case.

The Committee to Re-Elect the President, CREEP, took steps to assure Nixon’s reelection. One of the great ironies of Watergate was that Nixon worried about anti-war candidate George McGovern atop the Democratic ticket yet few people, back in an era of less public proclaimed respect for patriotism, chose candidate McGovern for his World War II bomber experiences unlike when he took up the cause to end the Vietnam War; we have been an ahistorical culture regarding those who we ask to lead for more than the past few years. Nixon feared, of course, that McGovern’s reputation and desire to end the war would expose his own failure do so as promised in 1968.

After the initial Watergate incident, investigators methodically developed an understanding of the scale of illegal actions condoned—if not recorded and ordered—by the President and his closest aides against enemies of all sorts. Most shocking besides Nixon himself was the role that the Attorney General, chief lawyer of the land, played in the entire scheme to seize information from a Democratic ticket never likely to prevent Nixon’s 72 victory. John Mitchell served prison time in system he had once overseen.

Investigators, along with intrepid Washington Post reporters, secured cooperation from several members of Nixon’s White House staff as well as campaign personnel engaging in illegal actions to cower opponents and distort the law because Nixon hated them. To say it was an all-consuming scandal for the nation understates the attitude many in both parties had. Few ever questioned whether what they were witnessing was factual or real; there were no protests about “fake news”. The three national networks televised the Watergate hearings as they unfolded, with shocking revelations surfacing regularly.

North Carolina’s Sam Ervin became a hero to many for conducting the Senate’s Select Committee hearings during which Tennessee’s Howard Baker, a Republican, posed the most famous question of the era: “What did the President know and when did he know it?” House Judiciary chairman Peter Rodino became a household name as he gaveled the country and committee through weeks of testimony from well-known figures and often unknown characters with stupefying details. As the case unfolded, many aspiring law students shifted their attention to constitutional law by watching the Watergate Special Prosecutors Archibald Cox (before his firing in the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973), then Leon Jaworsky show the might the U.S. Constitution holds in its Articles and Amendments. One of the many staffers who worked on these hearings was a young recent graduate of Yale Law School, Hillary Rodham.

The summer of 74 was riveting but particularly the thirteen days between the Watergate impeachment process formally opening and Nixon resigning from the presidency on 9 August. In retrospect, because other hearings had predated introducing the articles of impeachment, things seem a bit more extended for those of us who recall the events but it was less than a fortnight for the process to play out. It took less time than what we have experienced since the day before JD Vance became Trump’s running mate on 15 July.

Nixon surrendered transcripts of illegal Oval Office tapes when the Supreme Court rejected of his appeal on “Executive Privilege” on 24 July but the “smoking gun” transcript released on 5 August left him bereft of options to avoid culpability. Nixon still had Republican diehards who believed him innocent but they were few and Congressional Republicans were moving with their Democratic colleagues to impeach him.

Nixon announced his resignation on 8 August with an effective date of noon the following day when he and family members boarded a helicopter for Andrews Air Force Base for a return to California where he retained a home. Tales have long circulated that Secret Service personnel followed him through the White House on the final night of his presidency out of concern as he morosely confronted the end of the Watergate horror show and the public opprobrium bound to ensue,

Nwely inaugurated Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon in September in hopes healing the country from the splits developed by investigations resulting from Watergate, the Vietnam War, and other government actions. it was an incredibly divisive period for this nation following on years of burgeoning distrust, doubt, fear and defeat.

Actions, of course, create consequences. The Republicans faced a drubbing in the 1974 midterms, followed by Ford’s defeat in seeking a full term two years later. The Republican coalition that had originally accepted Nixon into their “club” as the nominee in 1960 and 68/72 became a party determined to court religious conservatives under Ronald era within a decade. The Republicans gradually, following Watergate, embraced “primary” politics which opened the door for political outliers which led to ennui, marginalization at the national legislative level, and an effort to rollback Democrats’s policies on expanding civil rights, broadly defined, in the aftermath of the 1960s social revolution.

Democrats were still trying to rebuild a more equitable, representative party following the 1968 Chicago convention disaster that splintered their party in so many ways. They too tried to open the party through electoral reform such as primaries with the same effect of destroying centrists, albeit more slowly than Republicans because Dems retained control over Congress at the national level for another decade. Dems arguably failed entirely, however, by forgetting to grow a new generation of elected officials—a political bench for the future—at the state and local level. Democrats became known as the “anti” party for so many citizens—anti-Christianity because Dems welcomed a broader constituency, anti-life because most Dems supported the Supreme Court’s January 1973 Roe decision to make abortion a health care issue between a doctor and patient rather than the government and patient, and anti-military because of legacy of trying to avoid another Vietnam debacle. Democrats swept the 1974 midterms but things began splintering for the party after that as occurs with any true coalition.

Probably the greatest impact of this era was to sew the twin seeds of economic stagnation and distrust of institutions, both of which haunt us today. Nixon was President during the 1973 petroleum embargo by OPEC but that incident coincided with the high mark for all workers having confidence about their standard of living improving. Since then, wages have not kept rising in a sustained, demonstrable manner for those in this country, particularly as legacy industries such as steel, automobile, and mining have all seen their jobs dry up here. New industries can be bright but they are increasingly higher tech, requiring higher education which is no longer working for millions.

Watergate occurred less than a decade before the introduction of CNN and the 24 hour news cycle. It is ridiculous to blame the news media for everything, though it happens regularly. What the new environment meant, however, was that a proliferation of networks as deregulation of the public airwaves occurred under Reagan and Bush 41 between 1981 and 1993 left no requirement for both sides of a story to be told not for any sort of mandated accuracy on the part of the outlets. Institutions became suspect. Individuals increasing chose what they wanted to hear, demonizing alternate views, often at the urging of polarizing, self-aggrandizing politicians such as Newt Gingrich who used cable news to promote his unique approach to politics on a Capitol Hill. The era of “fake news” is a logical extension of that type of activity with devastating and not infrequently dangerous consequences.

I am not arguing we should not have held Nixon accountable for his actions: I still believe the Constitution says we are all equal under the law. Nixon’s respect for the political process, grudging as it was, is a sharp contrast to our own era where some demand opponents spend time in jail for any and everything while the same figures ridicule calls to obey the law themselves. In Watergate, the process worked.

But we are foolish not to recognize that steps to fix flaws in our system allowing scofflaws might create other consequences of a more important nature down the line. This is why we can never expect our system to be “one and done” as few things work well that way. It is why we must not surrender our participation to the frustration of a single election as it is a long term slog to maintain a participatory system.to surrender it would mean assuring a lesser future for the country as a whole.

I welcome any thoughts, rebuttals or comments.please circulate if you find value. Thank you for being a loyal reader, especially those of you who subscribe financially.

Be well and be safe. FIN

Amelia Thompson-Deveaux, “It took A Long time for Republicans to Abandon Nixon”, fivethirtyeight.com, 9 October 2019, retrieved at https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/it-took-a-long-time-for-republicans-to-abandon-nixon/

History Staff, “The Watergate Scandal: A Timeline”, history.com, 24 June 2024, retrieved at https://www.history.com/news/watergate-scandal-timeline-nixon