Today's words of wisdom ...
Part of an irregular series in which we look at wise words from history and how they deepen our understanding of the here and now ...
"Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal," - Richard Nixon, (1913-1994), 37th U.S. President, explaining his interpretation of executive privilege in a televised interview with David Frost.
This type of quote is a good pair with "absolute power corrupts absolutely." In this interview, the enigmatic, sometimes brilliant, always ruthless former president really made what he would regard as a mistake: He said what he really believed.
It was this type of executive privilege, the notion that by ascending to power one floats above the law, that was ultimately Nixon's undoing.
It has been the undoing of countless other leaders in this experiment called American democracy.
As a local attorney recently reminded me, it was the immortal Billy Jack who once said, "When the law breaks the law, there is no law."
As it should be. And it is important to remember how it was that Nixon and his long string of illegal, undemocratic political manipulations was finally brought to heel. It was the pillars of the very democracy that he so disrespected that ultimately held ground.
Free speech. Free press. Free elections. No leader is above these.
A thought on Nixon after seeing the trailer for the upcoming movie, something like "Frost and Nixon," concerning Nixon's series of interviews with David Frost.
Remember Nixon's handpicked heir? John Connolly, one-time head of "Democrats for Nixon." Imagine how, had Nixon completed his term, meet Big John.
Instead, his fall led to the Republicans wandering the wilderness. Rockefeller ascendant and Jerry Ford angered the right wing. Enter Ronald Reagan and a turn to the Goldwater right. The "moderate Republican" became history, though it can be argued people like our governor struggle with that. Note where it's getting him in the GOP. Phone isn't ringing a lot these days.
Nixon's self-authored books are fascinating, a brilliant, albeit troubled man. This is true whenever you read them, pre- and post Presidency. Wrote his own speeches. Played the cards that are now classic. The Checkers speech is echoed now in talk of "elites." Use of television, good (that one) and bad (Kennedy debates, though who would've bested JFK in looks?).
Those debates, interesting for the civility given what would come later.
Last thought. Imagine what he would be thinking right now. Your Inland Empire replete with huge warehouses taking in goods from ... China. He opened that door. Thus history changed. A California native changed his home state, and his country, forever. Like Johnson without Vietnam, a shining light. Nixon without Watergate, the same. Those are big "withouts."
You have to take a rather optimistic view of Nixon to believe that "without" Watergate there wouldn't have been another destructive scandal. With all the lying, ruthlessness and illegal behavior Nixon and his inner-circle were involved in, it's hard not to believe he would have gone down on something else.
The entire 1972 campaign was an episode in brutal, un-democratic sabatoge of the opposing party.
Robert Rogers