Lust for power, then and now

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/07/2022 (1505 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a fitting confluence of history, the 50th anniversary of the break-in at the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel on June 17, 1972 — setting off the Watergate scandal that ultimately led to the resignation of U.S. president Richard Nixon — and the congressional select committee hearings on the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 — the result of Donald Trump’s reckless perpetuation of the “Big Lie” that the November 2020 election had been “stolen” from him — recently took place in the same week.

The Watergate anniversary has been difficult to ignore. Gaslit, a riveting dramatic series (on Starz) examines the scandal mainly from the perspective of Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts,) the principled, though troubled, wife of Nixon’s attorney-general John Mitchell (Sean Penn in a prosthetic). In January 1972, Mitchell resigned his cabinet position to become head of Committee to Re-Elect the President.

Martha was not shy about speaking to the press about her suspicions of the corruption inside the Nixon White House. She initially believed that her husband would be unfairly blamed. Yet, John Mitchell — along with Nixon, H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and all the other “presidents’ men” — was at the centre of the dirty tricks, spying, break-in, obstruction of justice and the ensuing coverup.

Mitchell went as far as keeping Martha locked in a hotel room and sedated to prevent her from speaking to the press. When she was finally released and told journalists she had been kidnapped and assaulted, White House officials portrayed her as being unhinged.

Three years later, James McCord, one of the intruders arrested, confirmed she had been telling the truth.

The other couple featured in Gaslit is John and Maureen (“Mo”) Dean (Dan Stevens and Betty Gilpin). Today, Dean is a respected CNN commentator. But in June 1972, he was a 33-year-old lawyer and counsel to Nixon. Caught up with the prestige of his position, he initially adored Nixon and was more than willing to do his bidding.

When he finally realized that there was, as he told Nixon in late March 1973, “a cancer within — close to the presidency, that’s … growing daily,” it was too late.

Dean was convicted of obstruction of justice, though only served four months in a military prison; with the encouragement of the politically savvy Maureen, he saved himself by co-operating with justice authorities as the chief witness against Nixon and his officials.

Dean was disbarred and became an investment banker, though Watergate has defined his life. He has written several books on the topic — including his memoir, Blind Ambition — and most recently worked with CNN on the four-part series Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal.

The fascinating documentary serves as a powerful reminder of how paranoid, petty, mean-spirited and conniving Nixon was. In his 1972 re-election bid, Nixon feared his chances against the Democratic Party front-runner Edmund Muskie of Maine.

Not leaving anything to chance, Nixon’s loyal cadre of advisors, unconcerned whether their actions were legal or not, sabotaged Muskie’s campaign, thus ensuring his opponent was George McGovern of South Dakota, who was far less popular.

And yet, as corrupt as Nixon’s White House was, Dean, now 83, believes Trump’s recent actions were more dangerous. Nixon, at least, had a conscience,” he said in a CNN interview. “I’m not sure that Donald Trump does.”

Thus far, the compelling evidence presented by the Jan. 6 committee shows Trump’s deliberate lying about the so-called “rigged” election, when many advisors — including his then-attorney general, William Barr — repeatedly told him his electoral conspiracy accusations were nonsense; that Trump and his team made a concerted effort to coerce several state officials to break the law; that Trump relentlessly pressured the department of justice to “legitimize his lies” about the election; and that Trump was directly responsible for inciting the riot on the Capitol Building — a riot he allegedly wanted to participate in — and trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

The Watergate scandal was “instigated by a lust for political power,” as Sen. Sam Ervine, head of the Watergate committee put in 1974. So, too, was the Jan. 6 insurrection.

If there is one factor that differentiates Watergate from Jan. 6, it is the behaviour and actions of Republicans. While many Republican politicians stuck by Nixon to the bitter end, a powerful contingent led by Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who had been the party’s 1964 presidential nominee, eventually told Nixon if he did not resign, he would be impeached by the House and convicted in the Senate. They did not reject the tenets of basic justice.

Today, however, apart from Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who are serving on the committee, and a few other outliers, the vast majority of Republicans stubbornly support Trump’s “Big Lie.” Whereas 50 years ago, Republicans chose to respect the mores of government; now their extreme partisanship and “lust for power” at any and all costs blinds them to the harm they are inflicting on the country.

Now & Then is a column in which historian Allan Levine puts the events of today in a historical context.