For the first time in 36 years, the famed Washington Post duo of Woodward and Bernstein have a joint article in the newspaper. It's about, as you might suspect, Watergate. It was the most serious assault on the constitutional liberties of U.S. citizens to date when it happened in the early '70s. I was in graduate school at LSU when all this was happening, and I remember it being a matter of intense discussion . . . constantly.
But from my vantage point now, in 2012, Watergate seems like it was a thousand years ago. Watergate investigations were bi-partisan and the vote to impeach Nixon was likewise. Can you imagine something like that happening today . . . bi-partisan anything??
If you are not familiar with Watergate, this piece will spin you up pretty well. If you are familiar, well, it will give you creeps all over again.
But my point here is that as dangerous and criminal as Nixon was, I don't see him as any more of a threat to the Constitution of the country than the plutocracy that tightens its grip on the Congress, Courts, and White House. Nixon was a clear and present danger that the majority of the country recognized. What we are confronted with now is a toxic ideology that is embraced by ever-increasing numbers of people. That the market is god; that compassion is weakness; that military power should be exerted to achieve whatever end we desire in the world; that science is opinion . . . indeed, that everything is opinion.
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