02-12-2017, 04:41 PM
(02-10-2017, 03:39 PM)X_4AD_84 Wrote:(02-10-2017, 02:18 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: It's not really relevant, as the political culture is very different from what it was in the 1970s.
Approval of Donald Trump is about where approval of Richard Nixon was in mid-1973. Of course, Nixon had some political capital from the negotiations ending American involvement in the Vietnam War and starting diplomatic ties with China, but the Watergate and related scandals eroded that. It took until the spring of 1974 for support for impeachment of Nixon could approach what it is for Donald Trump in early February 2017.
Couple things about Nixon's inflection point. One I remember was the whole price controls debacle. Even 9 to 10 year old me understood the issues with that. The other recollection was leaving for school at O-DARK-hundred due to year round Daylight Saving Time. So even prior to the full force of Watergate he had that against him too.
When he quit we were in the middle of a major family summer road trip. Trying to recall, was it UT or CO ... what I do remember extremely clearly was us huddled around the TV in the hotel room watching his resignation speech.
![[Image: FT_Nixon.png]](http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2014/08/FT_Nixon.png)
I was eighteen. I lost all faith in Richard Nixon when he said "your President is not a crook". I had hoped for the best.
Honest people do not have to assert their virtues because such people live their virtues. Crooks have to proclaim their integrity, fools need to assert their wisdom, and madmen must assert their sanity. Closeted gays (don't get me wrong -- gay is OK) often show exaggerated machismo. People shaky about their social position buy status symbols. Alcoholics, addicts, and self-destructive gamblers brag that they can quit any time. I understand that people involved in child porn often have testaments to their greatness as parents. I know my potential faults of character, and I know what I must do to struggle against them.
(OK, I didn't know about Asperger's messing up my life, but I admitted it once I got the diagnosis, and shed a great burden of guilty feelings about my otherwise-inexplicable failures).
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.