I want to thank donald Trump for helping me re-live my youth

[louis c]

I was born in 1952 and I was not a normal kid growing up. I was all political, and way more political than my contemporaries.

I worked on the Eugene McCarthy campaign in 1968 at 15 and 16 years old. I demonstrated against the Viet-Nam war all through my late teens and early twenties.

But I have vivid memories of 1973 and 1974 about Nixon and Watergate. I never missed a hearing. I was a college student at the time and was 21 and 22 in 1973 and 1974. What's happening now is a replay of those times. I hung on every word then, and I do now, at the age of 65. There was the Watergate break-in of the DNC by Nixon underlings in 1972, to find embarrassing information on the Democrats in the lead up to that Presidential election. There was hack of the DNC by a foreign government, in coordination with the Trump campaign, to find embarrassing information about the Democratic candidate in the lead up to the 2016 Presidential campaign. The firings of the investigators of the beak ins by the President. The offer of pardons. The "rolling over" of witnesses against the President. The pattern is eerily familiar, and harkens me back to my radical, nerdy youth.

Now, the tapes. Who would have believed that Michael Cohen would have taped conversations while in the commission of a crime? It seems that some of those taped conversations are with Trump. It seems that Michael Cohen may be the equivalent of Alexander Butterfield and John Dean, all rolled up into one, especially if he flips (we'll see if he will really take the preverbal "bullet" when his freedom and his family's well being is on the line).

Thank you, Donald Trump. As excruciating as your presidency has been for me and this country, the silver lining is that you have enabled me to relive my youth, hopefully with the same outcome. August 9th can't come soon enough.

[PJMcK]

1. I feel the same way with an exception

I'm a little younger than you, louis c, but I remember the Watergate hearings and the way the Nixon presidency unraveled. Every day, it seemed, brought a fresh revelation that further implicated Nixon in wrong-doing. I remember thinking that Nixon had been monumentally stupid to have taken the actions he did since he was going to win the 1972 election anyway. I hated that man and when he finally resigned, I was overjoyed such that I didn't even care that President Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he had committed.

Throughout those couple of years, there was one thing underlying the essence: Good would eventually expose Evil and the strength of our nation would help our country survive Nixon's assaults.

With each day's stories about Trump, I have the same hatred I felt back in 1973. This man is an existential threat to our country and the world. The difference today is that I don't have the same sense of assurance that Good will win in the end. Trump's evilness-- and that of Republicans, in general-- give this crisis a very different feeling. My hope is tempered by the massiveness of Trump's evil cabal.

[samnsara]

2. im a cpl yrs older than you are but i was a single parent, working, living at my parents...

..started college the next year. I didnt follow it like you did..I remember Mo Deans bun!! This time Im paying attention to every single detail

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. Just re watched "All The Presidents Men" The Republican playbook was the

same, though of course it's far worse today, partly with the foreign intervention, but also, Nixon, as bad as he was, was not intent on shredding the government from within like this Orange Evil Clown and his henchmen.

I highly recommend watching it. Beyond the parallels to today, it is amazing to see the slow, hard work of tracking down people, leads and info using phone books, rotary dial phones, scraps of paper...no internet.

[lark]

4. I was born that same year.

I feel like the MSP students have brought me back to my youth of Vietnam protests. Love them!!

[IAMSPARTICUS]

5. August 9th can't come soon enough.

what's august 9?

[NBachers]

6. Richard Nixon resigns - Welcome to Democratic Underground.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/080974-3.htm

[louis c]

8. Aug. 9, 1974

In the second year of Nixon's second term, about 26 months after the reported break in at Watergate, the President resigns.

Following the same scenario of Watergate, with investigations and grand jury findings (it was reported in the summer of 1974 that Nixon was named an unindicted co-conspirator for participating in the cover-up), Aug. 9 would be the day the President* resigns.

Link;

[SCantiGOP]

15. August 9

I was watching with two of my friends in my college apartment. We had a fat joint rolled and agreed that we wouldn’t light it until he used the word “resign.”
When he did and we lit up, I really felt like the country had turned down the right path. I never thought we would face something like Trump.

[CottonBear]

18. I was in elementary school and had been watching the hearings on TV.

My dad got the daily paper so I kept up with the news that way and by listening to the evening news casts on TV.

I watched Nixon resign on TV in the company of my entire immediate family, my maternal grandparents, my maternal uncle & aunt and my cousins. We were down at my grandparents’ home on the Alabama gulf coast.

My Republican parents and Uncle and Aunt and my Grandparents said not a word.

It was a shocking event.

[WhiteTara]

26. Like December 12 is a national day of tragedy

August 9th is a day of great celebration that the people and the law prevailed.

Welcome to DU You will learn a lot if you care to on this site!

[malthaussen]

7. So, when are you buying avocado green appliances?

Ah, the Seventies.

-- Mal

[gay texan]

20. I just bought some clogs and a 8 track player

Stop rushing me.......

[flying_wahini]

22. Welcome to DU!

[lunatica]

23. LOL

Good one!

[Firestorm49]

9. Nice Job

You nailed it.

[flying_wahini]

24. And welcome to DU to you too!

[GreenEyedLefty]

10. I was born in 1971 and have a question

Did Nixon have true believers who are as nutty as Trump's?

[Mad_Mongol]

12. See Roger Stone

..The lying liar lying for Trump. He has a Nixon tattoo

[louis c]

13. Yes, but not quite as nutty or numerous

Last edited Sun Apr 15, 2018, 11:36 AM - Edit history (1)

There was the "silent majority' who hated the demonstrators. the former George Wallace supporters who were once 'bigoted Democrats" switched over, slowly after 1965 civil rights laws, to be the 'bigoted Republicans". Nixon referred to this during his 1972 re-election as the "Southern Strategy". Those bigots first moved from "Democrats" to Wallace's third party in 1968, and then to Republican Richard Nixon in 1972. They slowly moved to the Republican Party, where they all reside today.

Those people were more staunchly loyal to Nixon, but the establishment Republicans, Percy, Brooke, Goldwater, Jacob Javitz types deserted Nixon when the evidence became overwhelming. When Nixon left office, his approval rating was in the mid 20's. Once the tapes came out, and you could hear the crimes being committed in Nixon's own voice, he became impossible to defend.

This was when a time that "elites" were people with a lot of money and power. Today, elites are people with knowledge. I've been called an elitist because I can recite facts. I have no great wealth or power. By putting that moniker on people with knowledge, the other side has made ignorance a virtue. That wasn't the case in 1974.

[yardwork]

21. That's a good summation. Thirty years of hate radio, Fox News, social media brainwashing....

We have a bad situation in the country now, when half the population is brainwashed into believing an alternate reality.

I'm a little younger than you, and I've also always been very aware of politics. I recall that during Watergate, Nixon supporters became sullen. They acknowledged - more or less - Nixon's crookedness, but they tried to argue that his "successes" outweighed the criminal behavior. When he resigned, nobody defended him.

Now, we have half the country simply refusing to believe the facts of what Trump is doing. That's new and different.

[dhol82]

14. This is an interesting article from WAPO

Comments section is fun also.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/04/11/what-trump-has-that-nixon-didnt/?utm_term=.ce7a694fbaaa

[GreenEyedLefty]

19. I suspect the author is hedging.

With regard to Democratic chances in November. Or maybe I'm too hopeful.

[flying_wahini]

25. This article you linked to is Very Optimistic and will assuage many hard right feelings about the

Democratic Party to rally any support for impeachment. However the mid terms are months away and lots of things can happen before then. I believe that there are LOTS of Normal Republicans that will leave the party behind in the fall if only for a one time vote For the left.

[RandomAccess]

16. Yes, tho I really can't say ANYONE is as nutty as

Trump's.

However, people like Roger Stone and Ben Stein STILL think Nixon is the greatest. Stone has Nixon tatooed on his back. That's pretty damned nutty.

[GreenEyedLefty]

17. Good god.

[WhiteTara]

27. yes, but there was no internet to amplify the crazies.

[malthaussen]

30. Well, E Howard Hunt implied he was willing to be shot...

... to preserve the secret, but I suspect he was just indulging in dramatics. I don't recall the same level of fanaticism among Mr Nixon's followers we see now, but then in 1974 we didn't have a 24/7 news cycle to give voice to all the loonies all the time.

-- Mal

[bluescribbler]

11. After Nixon resigned, Hunter S. Thompson said,

"If Watergate proves that the system works, imagine what would happen if we have a really sophisticated criminal, instead of a used car salesman."

[Upthevibe]

28. I was in high school and watched with my best friend....

I remember.....

[Vinca]

29. It's so strange to look back for me. I was almost totally apolitical at that point -

except for opposing the Vietnam War. I was aware of Watergate, but I didn't go out of my way to watch the hearings. How times change. Today's presidential nightmare is must see TV.