Said it before, will say it again: The worst political blunder of my lifetime was letting Nixon’s CREEPsters scuttle off to think-tanks and other safe havens, rather than pursuing them to the full extent of the law, down to the last lowly Dick Cheney. Gerry Ford’s ‘benevolence’ led directly to the Brooks Brothers Riot, which led to the January 6th Insurrection…
The astonishing thing about Watergate, in contrast to today, is how the President was actually shamed into leaving office.
Imagine that: shame.— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) August 8, 2025 at 2:56 PM
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A lot of responses say Nixon wasn't driven out by shame.
1) If you listen to his departure speech, that was definitely a man who was – at that moment at least – ashamed.
2) His own party forced him out, because they felt what he did could not be defended.
Imagine either happening today.— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) August 8, 2025 at 7:18 PM
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Shame (as opposed to guilt) is a collective determination that certain things cannot be excused, cannot be ignored, cannot be brushed aside. They must have consequences.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) August 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
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People saying "Nixon wasn't shamed from office, he was forced out by Republican Senators telling him to resign or be removed" are in fact describing the dynamic of being shamed.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) August 9, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Paul Musgrave, at his Substack Systemic Hatred. “Nixon Won”:
For a long time, I’ve tried to make August 9 into an American holiday: Resignation Day. Yes, Richard Nixon gave his resignation address to the nation on August 8, but it wasn’t until noon Eastern time on August 9 that he surrendered the powers of the presidency.
I had a dream. One day, we would sit on our lawns and sip Nixon’s favorite wine (Château Lafite Rothschild)—or at least a cheap California red that he would serve to White House guests while he was privately served the good stuff. We would lay out a slice of pineapple, some cottage cheese, and a glass of milk—Nixon’s favorite lunch!—like an empty seat at the Passover table. And we would listen to anti-regime songs, like “Ohio” and (funkier) Stevie Wonder’s “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” . All of this to commemorate a great political victory and to remind us that vigilance can work…
Why should Resignation Day be a civic holiday? Because it was the U.S. version of the Glorious Revolution—the deposition of an abusive ruler to affirm a political order. (And, happily, a political order much more fair and deserving of honor than that upheld by the English crown before or after some Dutch monarchs took title to it.) The saga of Watergate is about vastly more than a break-in (there were, for instance, multiple-break-ins): it was about an attempt to systematically debase and corrupt U.S. governmental institutions, from the statistical agencies to the security apparatus, in order to extend the rule of one leader.
Nixon’s crimes against the Constitution do not even begin with the break-in at the Democratic National Committee, and they continued long afterward. To summarize the summary of the Senate Watergate Committee report: Nixon’s coterie directed the use of official and para-official resources to harass the media; intimidate and sabotage other presidential campaigns; solicited campaign contributions—really, bribes—with the implicit promise of presidential favors; used those funds to further illegal activities; instituted reprisals against activists and critics; falsified government and other documents; destroyed records; suborned perjury and otherwise obstructed justice; turned the CIA and FBI into accessories; and used official resources to reward friends and allies. (And this list does not even include unrelated abuses, like that of the General Services Agency to upgrade the president’s private residences.)…
… The presidency as Donald Trump wields it is far more unconstrained than that Nixon occupied. Indeed, given contemporary Supreme Court rulings regarding presidential immunity and bribery, many infamous abuses of the Nixon administration might not even qualify. (Hell, it’s possible that even Spiro Agnew’s graft—which included literally accepting cash in his office—wouldn’t qualify these days.) Many of the laws that sought to rein in the presidency have been eroded or vitiated—some gradually, some suddenly. And norms? There should be a plaque outside the West Wing: This place is not a place of honor.
Some of this erosion has taken decades to unfold. Some of it has unfolded quickly, within extremely recent memory. (Trump vs United States was 13 months ago!) All of it matters.
The presidency is now vastly closer to being an elected dictatorship than at any peacetime point in U.S. history. When I was young and read more (actual) reactionary thought, I recall that conservatives of the Human Events ilk were agog at the use of declarations of emergency to put through programs expanding presidential power. Trump uses emergency declarations like a punchline—an abuse of power that is gross in more ways than one.
Checks and balances? Obviously, the other co-ordinate branches of the federal government, and even most state governments, are not balancing in any meaningful degree. (Some political scientists are rushing to point at this or that third-order balancing, which is the literal definition of the forest/trees confusion.) The real checks, which were undertaken by institutions like the media, unions, and universities, have been eviscerated. (Nixon would have dreamed of using antitrust powers to break the CBS News division. What was once political science fiction is now political science fact.)
It’s hard, then, to celebrate Resignation Day. But that doesn’t mean we should forget it. Rather, we should observe it, as penance and as prayer. (The penance can involve actually eating the cottage cheese as ritual purification.) If America is united by a civic religion, we need a day of remembrance.
Watergate kicked off a multi-decade project by the right wing to insulate Republican leaders from accountability.
— Aaron Huertas (@aaronhuertas.bsky.social) August 9, 2025 at 11:03 AM
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We had a press corps that was more interested in informing the public, than in entertaining their wealthy owners.
That meant there were actual consequences for Republican shamelessness.
Today, there are no consequences. The media actively supports them, and actively lies about Dems.— Democrats In Array Thanks Joe Biden (@demsinarray.bsky.social) August 8, 2025 at 8:31 PM
War for Ukraine Day 1,263: Ripple Effects
Jackie
Today’s MAGA Republicans will never have the balls to threaten impeachment to FFOTUS. Today’s MAGA Republicans will tuck their tails between their legs and say The HELL with the USA and democracy. They are chickenshit cowards.
No One of Consequence
I want this as I have wanted few things in this world. Because of that fact, I know that I will not see it.
It is cynical, but it is lived experience.
My vain hope, is that history will find the right of it, and tell it true. Even if it is realized, Orangemandius will stroke out, or thrombo mambo off into whatever dark hell awaits, before any sort of justice arrives for him this side of the veil.
-NOoC
p.s. This is why I really do hope for a Putting Things Aright commission, but would vastly prefer full adjudication. for if nothing else, full evidentiary record backed with threat of perjury. That IS and WILL BE enforced to the fullest extent of the law.
different-church-lady
It’s not just the president who has no shame — his enablers on Capital Hill no longer have any.
MagdaInBlack
@different-church-lady: He showed them the way: just brazen your way thru it.
Matt McIrvin
I’ve seen plenty of shame. It’s entirely on the part of Democrats, liberals and leftists, for some defect in themselves, their side, their ideology that somehow let this happen. We tear ourselves apart over it.
Republicans, they’re just like wild beasts. Any expectation of accountability or self-awareness is gone.
NotMax
“Only the mediocre are always at their best. ”
– Jean Giraudoux
.
Cheez Whiz
I’ve always said that when they watched Nixon board Marine 1 for the last time, the Republican party swore “Never Again”. It explains everything after that moment. Given that it was Republicans who forced Nixon out, and that many of his crew including John Mitchell, the Attorney General, went to prison, I think its understandable Democrats thought the best option was to hope for return to a status quo. Nixon was an outlier in so many ways it was plausible, but Democrats had no way to know about that oath.
lamh47
Sadly the only way chump leaves office is if grim reaper takes him…then we’ll be left with Vance same evil different day.
But maybe the repub think they could stand up to Vance more? But I doubt it seriously they’ll just keep fuq’n over the same folks just with an younger dumber face!
cckids
“You Haven’t Done Nothing “ is a great song. Mr. Wonder wrote very few political songs, but wow, does this one hit hard.
And three days after its release, Nixon resigned. Probably coincidence, but just in case, I officially ask him to write another.
Please, man.
JaySinWa
It’s too soon. The T&R phase for us has to come after the fall of the current regime. Until then there can only be truth, reconciliation will have to wait.
ruckus
@lamh47:
rethugs want power. And there seems to be at least a fair amount of citizens that don’t want them to have it. I’ve helped with elections in the past, but what I see today in politics is seemingly a hell of a lot worse on the other side of the aisle these days than it has been for most of my life. Because the kind of power that they want really doesn’t make a democratic nation, and if they get that unlimited power to go backasswards a couple of centuries, or more, a lot of citizens will be forever harmed. Because I do not think a lot of the right actually want a democracy. They want control, 1000% and that’s not how a democracy works. We’ve lost the concept of the rich paying their fair share and effectively given the uber wealthy the concept that money is every damn thing and the only way to get all the money is not be in an actual democracy. They seemingly want a government that supports them and everyone else can suck it. It not being something I’m going to type on the blog.
prostratedragon
Just heard through the grapevine, apparently true:
prostratedragon
@cckids:
From 1972, “Big Brother”.
Geminid
@prostratedragon: I wonder if these will be D.C. National Guard units. That seems likely. Now I’m interested in the composition of the DC Guard. For instance, I wonder how many DC cops are the local Nation Guard.
Citizen Alan
@different-church-lady: I don’t recall who said it (Kay, I think), but it’s true: There are no Republicans with any redeeming characteristics. The only credit I will give Republicans as a class of people is that the majority of them are not rapists and pedophiles. Probably.
prostratedragon
Art.
Life.
NotMax
While am in a quotable quotes frame of mind —
“The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.”
— William Hazlitt
.
prostratedragon
@Geminid: Good question.
Also,
NotMax
@prostratedragon
Speaking of art, added to the NY trip list. Previews begin just days before will be heading back to Maui.
Shall also try to catch Jean Smart’s one woman show which closes later this month.
;)
patrick II
I am sure someone here can explain to me why Clinton didn’t declare a national emergency, nationalize the guard, arrest every Brooks Brothers rioter he could find and ensure the vote count continued. And I know there are drawbacks, but none worse than the one we actually face.
Bettencourt
@NotMax: I saw the original Broadway cast of Art when it came to LA – Victor Garber, Alan Alda and Alfred Molina. One of my all-time favorite theatergoing experiences.
The thought of James Corden in that show fails to fill me with joy.
JoyceH
@prostratedragon: We can use that. He thinks calling the Nat Guard to DC will be a good show that will earn him praise and show how tough he is. Instead we go with, if calling out the Guard was so easy, why didn’t you do it on Jan 6? These guys are so delusional that they come up with genius ideas (“Epstein Files, Phase 1”) that blow up in their faces.
ColoradoGuy
His fondest desire is to transform Washington DC into Pyongyang, with massive military parades, posters everywhere, massive bronze statues, a subdued and passive population, and a sprinkling of gilded oligarchs at the top.
Somehow I don’t think the residents of DC will go along with that. At all.
rikyrah
Said it for awhile..
The Founding Fathers saw the Orange Menace coming….
They never anticipated an entire political party turning their backs on their oath to the Constitution😒😒😒at the same time.
Baud
@ColoradoGuy: He’s already tried the military parade. It didn’t go too well.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Those both sound great.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@rikyrah: I wish the US had the political wherewithal to do to the GOP what Greece did to their moral equivalents in 2020.
lowtechcyclist
Chovanec:
That sounds to me like the normal working of our legal system. We have laws that we’ve collectively agreed on, and that agreement extends to the expected consequences of breaking those laws.
So if I rob a bank, and get caught, convicted, and imprisoned, I’ve been ‘shamed’? Whatever,
Ksmiami
@Matt McIrvin: yes we are in the “garden of beasts” phase now. That’s why it’s impossible to think of sharing a future country with these manuacs
Ksmiami
@Citizen Alan: me. I’ve said it for years. They are simply animals
lowtechcyclist
I continue to be an agnostic on Ford’s pardon of Nixon. But I’ve always believed that Congress should have followed through with voting on impeachment and conviction. It wouldn’t have been unanimous, but it would have been awfully close to it. (Rep. Wiggins, Nixon’s main defender on the Judiciary Committee, had gone on TV after the ‘smoking gun’ tape was revealed, and said the Committee was ready to change its vote to 38-0 for impeachment on the obstruction of justice charge.) And it would have kept us from hearing for decades about how Nixon had been ‘hounded from office.’
Baud
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Golden Dawn was never as popular as Republicans.
Princess
Forget August 9; January 6 should have been a holiday starting in 2022. Every year — bonfires and burning in effigy, the whole bit. Oh well, too late now.
Anyway, forcing Nixon to resign was the way the GOP avoided truth and reconciliation. And got it to happen now in these days, they’re going to need to be defeated. We’re not there yet; not even close.
Baud
@Princess:
QFT
Baud
Via reddit
sab
@rikyrah: Weren’t our Founding Fathers wary of party politics in general?
Betty
@prostratedragon: He is also sending 120 FBI agents who clearly have nothing better to do.
apocalipstick
We will have no such commission, because there must be truth before reconciliation, and I can say, as someone repped by Josh Hawley, Eric Schmitt, and Jason Long, that truth is not forthcoming.
I will also add that I do not think the media actively reps for the GOP. The fallout of Watergate was bad for the news media. Woodward and Bernstein became famous and rich, which led to a whole generation of reporters who viewed them as role models. Why wouldn’t they, in a culture that values money over life? Who is Jake Tapper but a man who desperately wants to be Bob Woodward?
Bill Arnold
@patrick II:
I’ve often wondered how USA fascists would deal with protesters who wore suits/business attire.