Quote:
Originally posted by xoxoxoBruce
No intelligent person had a belief in government. Only a moron would think that politicians on any level were boy scouts. Real people weren't nearly as exited about watergate as the media and academia.
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And that will always remain in diagreement because I lived it and never stopped learning more about it. As America entered the 1960s, virtually everyone believed the government. The nation was that moronic. Even your parents refused to accept that government would lie until 1990s! That belief in government is why Johnson could outright lie about Gulf of Tonkin, so that all but one Congressman would vote for war against N VietNam. Back then, when the president said it was an unprovoked attack, then the nation had absolutely no reason to doubt. We believed the Federal government that completely.
Watergate is a watershed issue. For the first time, government outrightly lied and even tried to corrupt other government agencies (IRS, CIA, FBI) to expand criminal lies and coverup.
We will never agree. The 1960s were never a time when people demanded government out of their lives. The 1960s was the era when government, for the first time, lied *real* lies. Not some silly nonsense about sex with Monica. Lies as in to "destroy the US Constitution". Nixon was so mentally criminal that even his staff would pervert or corrupt this nation's government - as demonstrated by a classic, powerful, confrontation between Sen Sam Ervin and Erlichman. A daytime confrontation in an event so major that people even listened to Watergate hearings while at work. What was more important then? Work or the Watergate hearings? In most cases, people worked while still monitoring those hearings because for the first time in US history, a White House administration tried to subvert the US Constitution. For the first time, government really lied.
What did Erlichman claim? Basically that the Nixon White House was superior to the Constitution. And so that famous confrontation about the 4th Amendment. Even a knife could not cut that tension.
What changed in the 1960s? For the first time, top White House people, such as the president, would lie (everything from Cambodia and outright bribery to petty break-ins) and even violate the US Constitution - because their personal political agenda was more important that the nation. Not about getting government out of peoples lives. Those patriotic demonstrators on the streets of Chicago would be more accurate then anyone knew. The whole world would be watching because, for the first time in US history, a crooked president would subvert the US government. Nobody believed this could happen - until we got to the 1960s. Few today even know about Nixon's treason - to continue the VietNam war so Nixon could get elected in 1968.
In the 1960s, for the first time, government was that 'unworthy'. It is the legacy of the 60s. Not about getting big government out of people's lives. For the first time, government lied real lies. Lies we have not seen until another president lied about WMD - to justify another war.