Nixon was hounded out of office for offenses that pale in comparison to the record of Bush & Cheney. They committed his sins and more, and publicly confessed to a couple like violating the Geneva Convention standards on torture and wiretapping Americans without warrants (which Bush admitted after lying about it until it was documented). And for good measure, they covered up the crime of outing Valerie Plame, which is possibly the closest parallel to Watergate.
More disturbing than their actions though is that the Washington political and press establishment lined up and saluted while Bush & Cheney were doing those things and even now treat prosecuting them the same way they did the grassroots effort to impeach them: as a fringe idea not worthy of even refuting.
Looking at the difference between that time and now, it seems like one or two things happened:
- The press was co-opted the corporate political establishment
- Nixon committed some sin that pissed off the powerful, so they turned the dogs on him for offenses they would otherwise overlook.
I suppose those aren't mutually exclusive, but separately or together, it's sad how far we as a country have fallen in respect for our democratic process, or at least how far our elected leaders have fallen.
No comments:
Post a Comment