Mastodawn

Lauren Weinstein

Most of you reading this probably are too young to directly remember Nixon's Watergate scandal. Sometimes in our lives we live through events and don't realize that they are historic until many years or even decades later. Watergate was not one of those. We knew at the time that it was crucially important history.

Trump's federal indictment falls into the same category. You are watching enormously crucial history unfold in real time before you, that will affect this country and the world for many decades (at least) to come.

Please pay attention.

smartwatermelon

@lauren one of my earliest memories is my parents watching the Watergate hearings on a tiny B&W TV.

Lauren Weinstein Jun 12, 2023

@smartwatermelon It was quite the spectacle.

Lauren Weinstein Jun 12, 2023

@smartwatermelon When I think of those hearings, the first image I get is of Sam Ervin, who was chairman. Then John Dean, who you can see in interviews on CNN now.

JR Buckley 🏳️‍🌈⚛️Jun 12, 2023

@smartwatermelon @lauren
I was 10 and my grandfather made me watch it all with him because he said I'd have to write papers about it in high school.

ANOTHER thing Grandpa was right about....

Bruce Mirken Jun 12, 2023

@lauren I have vivid memories of #Watergate. I was babysitting the neighbor kids the night of the Saturday Night Massacre, and got home to see my Republican dad fuming. That was the night he realized Nixon really was a crook. "And I voted for him," he said, with more disgust than I'd ever heard in his voice. I keep hoping MAGAts will have a moment like that -- but Nixon's #Republicans weren't a cult. #TrumpIndictment

Martha Howell Jun 12, 2023

@BruceMirken @lauren
To this day, my mom won't admit that she voted for him. She's 94.

Grandpa Don Jun 12, 2023

@BruceMirken @lauren
I was pretty much samexas your dad.It definitely was " history unfolding"

Caryn has moved Jun 12, 2023

@BruceMirken @lauren My Republican parents had much the same reaction as your Dad. They voted for him but were disgusted with him when Watergate happened. Here's to hopes that at least some of his (Trump's) supporters start to see reality with this.

My mom actually voted for Obama in 2008 - last presidential election before she passed.

Sharon Gibson Morgan Jun 12, 2023

@caryn @BruceMirken @lauren My father was born in 1929, so he cast his first presidential vote for DDE. Daddy was in hospice in August 2016. The last time I and my then-fiancé visited him, he said, "That Donald Trump, he cracks me up." He knew that fool was a clown. Unfortunately, he died in October of that year and didn't get to vote for Hillary.

Bruce Mirken Jun 12, 2023

@SharonGibson3 @caryn @lauren Ah, Eisenhower... who warned us about the "military-industrial complex" and called fellow #Republicans who wanted to dismantle Social Security "stupid." Those were the days.

Lauren Weinstein Jun 12, 2023

@BruceMirken @SharonGibson3 @caryn Even Goldwater mellowed quite a bit in his later years.

*Close* attention.

I don't think it's overstating things to say that how this event goes down in history could determine whether the USA continues to believe in the rule of law, or whether it goes down the strongman/dictator route, will all spoils to the victor, and prison or execution for his opponents.

The rest of the world waits with bated breath.

#constitution #law #crime #history

Extinction (our fate)Jun 12, 2023

@lauren My first political memory was when Ford pardoned Nixon. So, full circle.

Debbie Wade Jun 12, 2023

@lauren I remember Nixion and followed Watergate as closely as we could at that time. I agree with you. Watching history when we know it's important history doesn't happen frequently in a lifetime.

VEG The Aging Hippie Jun 12, 2023

@lauren Sadly he's going to skate once more. The judge he's facing Aileen Cannon (supposedly chosen randomly) has already proven her bias. The jury will be all Magats.

canusfeminacanis Jun 12, 2023

I remember Watergate.
Same party, but with that soupçon of boundaries known as shame.

So such luck with T. rump.

Texty the Bard Jun 12, 2023

@lauren My parents used to tell stories about how 3 y/o me would run around with V fingers in the air, babbling "Not a crook! Not a crook!" They voted for Carter because they were disgusted with Watergate, but then voted for Anderson in 1980. By 1983, they'd fallen in with the far-right/sovcit fringe, via some anti-IRS seminars recommended by a friend. It went downhill from there. Dad died (unvaxed COVID) in 2021. Mom is still volunteering with the local GOP. Sigh...

Marc Jacobs Jun 12, 2023

@lauren I remember watching Senator Sam Ervin run the Watergate hearings, every afternoon, after coming home from school.

Better than the Munsters reruns that were on UHF.

Joe ❌👑Jun 12, 2023

@lauren I was a teen then, but I was very interested and watched most of the hearings. Politics was very different then, it was like there were four parties: northern Democrats (pro civil rights), southern Democrats (anti civil rights, often voted for Nixon's proposals), Rockefeller Republicans (pro civil rights), Goldwater Republicans (anti civil rights, some John Birch types). Often two of the four groups would get together and do something and this was called "bipartisan". Eventually the southern Dems and Rockefeller Republicans switched parties.

Martha Howell Jun 12, 2023

@not2b @lauren
I grew up then, and judge parties on politics then. The Republicans are off the charts far right, and the Dens are Gerald Ford.

Joe ❌👑Jun 12, 2023

@MHowell @lauren On economic issues Dems have moved right compared to the 70s, with only a few exceptions, but on social issues (anything LGBTQ related, or women's rights related, or drug related) modern Dems are much better than they were then.

Martha Howell Jun 12, 2023

@lauren
I was in 5th grade and remember it. It convulsed the country. Gerald Ford toasted his own English muffin in his first days as president and it was a 3-day story, because it was so normal, such a relief from the twisted Nixon years and egos.

Ardy’s Jun 12, 2023

@lauren Nixon would have blushed at the shit Trump’s been getting up to.

a crucial difference is Trump’s absolute inability to experience shame, as well as his total lack of regard for the well-being of anyone other than himself (much less an abstraction like “the good of the country”)

Grandpa Don Jun 12, 2023

i recall vividly, after following it unfolding day by day, standing in the living room of our apartment watching the 12 inch tv as RMN resigned. I had voted for him twice. I thought the China initiative and EPA were huge pluses, but he had screwed up royally and needed to go. But that was the POTUS there on the screen RESIGNING! Never happened before. I was transfixed, and yes, I thought "this is history happenning."

IAMHetkey Jun 12, 2023

@lauren: Do I have to pay attention? I lived through Watergate.

Steve Torrente Jun 12, 2023

@lauren Tuesday's gonna be lit.

Alexander The 1st Jun 12, 2023

@lauren I'd hedge on Watergate not being one of those moments people didn't realize was going to be historic - at least at the beginning, people apparently *didn't* think Watergate was going to be a big deal (Citation: [ https://youtube.com/watch?v=zxT8CM8XntA&feature=share7 ] @11:17 - 11:46 ).

But definitely during the actual impeachment trial, that shifted over time until essentially even Nixon felt the need to resign rather than face trial by the Senate.

Impeachment: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

YouTube

Simon Lucy Jun 12, 2023

Well when it was just a break in sure it wasn't considered the high drama of an historical event but with the drip, drip, drip of the investigations over weeks then months and the falling of articles daily before the hearings started it was the consuming event, even in the UK.

People did think Tricky Dicky would get away with it. Nixon was covert, Trump does it in plain sight. Trump does it with populism, Nixon hated everyone, so does Trump but smiles in his shiny suits.

Jason, Human, Average

@lauren Been paying attention the whole time. Unfortunately it's the same kind of attention an astronaut might pay to a slowly leaking crack in the spacecraft's hull. Sort of hard not to pay attention, you really wish you didn't have to, and you know there's a significant probability this doesn't end well.

What I wouldn't give for a simple little burglary at this point...

חנן כהן • Hanan Cohen Jun 12, 2023

@lauren When Kissinger will die, I hope the young will also learn about his war crimes.

Kerri Levine Jun 12, 2023

Though only in grade school at the time, I still remember very well the Watergate scandal.

I have a small library of books about Watergate today.

If Nixon & Reagan (Iran Contra) had both been indicted for their shit, even if both received eventual pardons, it would still have set a good precedent for today.

Indicting former presidents for criminal behavior would be normal, not shocking.

punkin Jun 12, 2023

@lauren it's a bit hard though when every day is a historical first in one respect or another. Interested to see how this plays out though for sure

Marcia Hendrick Jun 12, 2023

@lauren I was thinking about this yesterday. The 1963 assasination of JFK happened when I was in junior high. 1965 had the Watts riots in LA., and then in 1968, my senior year in high school, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. My college years were dominated by the Vietnam War, the protests against it, and the Kent State shootings. Watergate had all of this as a backdrop.

Kevin Leecaster Jun 12, 2023

@lauren
The pardoning of Nixon is a big part of the reason that we're in the mess we are in now imo.

Third spruce tree on the left Jun 12, 2023

@lauren Seriously. For me growing up it was the Iran-Contra scandal and Challenger exploding and AIDs.

<joking>Cmon! I have too many histories unfolding right now! Trump being indicted, Reddit/Twitter melting down, Ukraine warzone, rampant hate and phobia (damned nazis are back), runaway climate change and my country is *literally* on fire right now.</joking>

Granted, one of those things may be less significant than the others.

AGreatSound Jun 12, 2023

@lauren A lot of us lived through 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis and a world wide pandemic so I think we are fairly used to unprecedented times. In fact what you might perceive as inattention might actually just be exhaustion.

Lauren Weinstein Jun 12, 2023

@AGreatSound Where did I say anything about anyone being inattentive? I can't find it. All I can find is my recommendation that everyone pay attention.

AGreatSound Jun 12, 2023

@lauren I guess I read into it. But I don’t think it’s too far outside of the reading when you end the toot with pay attention on a line by itself. Anyways doesn’t matter. Point is taken.

ThoraSTooth Jun 12, 2023

Bear witness, whenever you can.

I skipped a mandatory band practice after my band director wouldn't cancel it so we could all watch Nixon resign. At least he had the grace not to discipline me for my rebellion.