And what about the rest of us? What about all the hours we spent speculating about the Mueller report, fantasizing about the Trump ruin or watching and reading speculation about these things? What about the superstructure of scandal politics we have built and live in today?
The sad fact is that Watergate introduced a poison into the American body politic. Richard Nixon’s downfall was just and important, but it opened up the mouthwatering possibility that you don’t need to do the hard work of persuading people to join your side. Instead, you can destroy your foes all at once through scandal.

We’ve All Just Made Fools of Ourselves — Again

We all understand the journalists’ appeal for Watergate: In the era where the USA could do no right, the Fifth Power actually being powerful and bringing down an US President ? Orgasmic. We re talking about deposing a head of state, a pleasure usually reserved for Third World Country revolutionaries. But keeping with historical tradition, the majority of what came after was actually worse than what was eliminated. Gotcha journalism became the norm and when they could not actually find evil behind the man, they created it and damn the consequences. And sometimes when they could not find a man, they are just happy to make up a crisis just because it sells or fits a political flavor they enjoy. Never forget that we are talking about people involved in the News business and not in the Truth business.

A reminder to the NYT: It is “Mea Culpa” and not “Not really Mea Culpa, somebody else made me do it.”  It does not work that way.