1992: An Interview- 20 Years After Watergate
Few incidents linger in the hearts and minds of Americans as the infamous Watergate scandal. Starting from 1972 and concluding at 1974, it would lead to the resignation of President Nixon and dramatically shakeup the faith Americans had in their government. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual attempts to cover up its involvement in the break-in of the
Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C.
Watergate Office Building back in June of 1972. After the five perpetrators were arrested, the press and the
U.S. Justice Department connected the cash found on them at the time to the
Committee for the Re-Election of the President. [1] After various investigations and revelations, it would be revealed the Nixon administration's role in trying to cover up the affair and would lead to near-impeachment, only failing because of Nixon resigning beforehand, as they would have been enough votes to impeach him. The whole affair would have qute a profound effect on politics as many believed that the stigma in Ford stung enough for Reagan to squeeze out a victory in the Republican primaries in 1976. After defeating Jimmy Carter in the general election, he would become President and be remembered for for his bad domestic policies and mixed foreign policies, setting up the rise for further New Deal style politicians like Mo Udall and Reubin Askew.
It was now the summer of 1992, 20 years since that break-in and as some people were looking back with newstations reflecting on how much has changed, others went further and planned articles or essays on catching up with what happened. Others believed that this was further spurred on by the passing of former President Mo Udall and presented the need to further find and interview these individuals before they would be lost to time. And perhaps also more into why this all happened. Of course, this was all still rather on the small cale and no one was sure if they would get too far. After all, former President Nixon was still alive and there was still some sentiment of respect against him in that regards. Nonetheless, the interviews could still be gathered and prepared for release later down the line in a few years or so. As people were going around and trying to find some of these figures and hearing what they said. And some had alot to say. While many stood out for one reason or another, one in particular would lay the foundation for upcoming shockwaves and decisions, casting a long and dreadful shadow.
And that one was a man named John Daniel Ehrlichman.
Ehrlichman was the
Counsel and
Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs back under Nixon. In fact, he was an important influence on Nixon's domestic policy, coaching him on issues and enlisting his support for environmental initiatives. However, he would also become infamous for another reason. He was a key figure in the events that led to the
Watergate break-in and the ensuing
Watergate scandal. He would ultimately be convicted of
conspiracy,
obstruction of justice, and
perjury and served a year and a half in prison. [1] Over the past several years or so, he kept mostly his head down though he had alot to say on the subject matter.
During an interview with the journalist Dan Baum, various question came up in comparison to back then and now. And one of those questions would actually be on the War on Drugs. Having been escalated by Nixon, his approach on handling drugs, possession, distribution and so on had been discarded for more reconcilatory responses and treating as an illness rather than criminalizing it. When noting this, Ehrlichman would give a quote to Baum that would reshape the narrative, all with "the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect":
“You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” [2]
In fact, when a shocked Baum asked on more on details and how it could be true, Ehrlichman noted to have paused before he merely pointed to the infamous Southern Strategy started by Goldwater and would be continued on in varying forms until 1988, where Anderson left the party as a result of its attempted reusage and the abysmal performance of the Dole/Bush ticket. The authenticity of the quote has remained debatable, especially since ultimately the article that the quote was considered wouldn't be published as is. That being said, it would remain among Baum's mind and before long, the quote would find its way across various papers, especially during the political season. Ehrilichman's name would remain anonymous on the subject matter though the words would remain and find their way across on the political spectrum.
Pundits and talk show hosts repeated this in various forms and flavors. The questions and comments would unleash further questions, debates and discussions with the word on the Southern Strategy coming back, the comparisons to how the aggressive stance on the War on Drugs has failed compared to treating it as an illness and of course on the matters of race and so on. Some of the other former staff members and people in there understandably refused to talk about that subject matter, wanting to put it behind them, a sentimentality that was respected. Though it was noted how Nixon himself would be unwilling to speak on the subject matter outside of noting his own hatred for drugs. This also spilled over some of the other unpleasant aspects that would be associated with Nixon and the like, including that Richard Nixon was anti-semetic, with rumors of certain comments spilling over. Perhaps unsurprisingly, African-Americans and American Jews, having long struggled with tense relations that were being smoothed overtime found even more common ground on this and even helped with the growing amicability.
All in the background of the general election.
While the Andrews/Specter ticket itself was not that affected (as they didn't have much of a known stance on this and would note that the evidence on what approach worked better spoke for itself), it served as a fresh coat of distrust, wariness and concern for the Republican Party. Even with it merely beinge hearsay and anecdotal evidence, the preexisting anger that existed was enough for people to take this and add fuel to the fire. After all, many still recalled the lean times from the Reagan era along with the frustration from 12 years of the GOP White House and the change from Eisenhower-inspired conservatism to a new shift in kind, one that became a dead end for the party and one that may have never truly recovered from. People do not like being lied to and the revelations that the people were lied to as a result of political chicanery? Not something to be liked.
Beyond that, the Unizens used it to further promote themselves as a more trustworthy path than the GOP and the Dems did the same though with a step further. Namely in reinvestigating the actual hazard of some of these drugs and further reforms to help people affected by this.
The return of a casting long shadow and that even 20 years later, they were haunted by the ghost of 1960s neoconservatism and its trappings. Some of the younger politicians even expressed concern if the Republican Party could ever shed that image. And even if it did, how could they move forward from it?
An answer to that question would come over in an RNC special guest to speak, the author of the
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, Russel Kirk.
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[1]- Information and phrasing coming from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal
[2]- Information and phrasing coming from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ehrlichman