One of our countries darkest hours has been rekindled.
Last week we learned the secret identity of a man who led to the downfall of an
American President. Mark Felt, the former second in command of the FBI broke his
thirty year silence and exposed himself as the famous “Deep Throatâ€ÂÂ.
Ironically this comes at a time when news of scandals
amongst Republicans seems to be as common as insurgent attacks in Iraq. This is
another thorn the Republican Party does not need. As if the Republican spin
machine hasn’t been already been in high gear trying to downplay the Downing
Street Memo, and Tom Delay’s alleged ethics violations, now it must go into
overtime. The Republicans must spin harder than ever and make Americans stop
thinking about Watergate.
It is no shock that we are seeing an onslaught of Nixon
supporters. They are coming out of the wood work defending Nixon’s involvement
in the Watergate Scandal. They are even going as far as to say Mark Felt
committed a treasonous act by releasing his information to the Washington Post.
Now take into consideration the scandalous Bill Clinton.
This is a man that the Republican Party has worked hard to demonize. Bill
Clinton, while serving as President of the United States, did the unthinkable.
He had an extra marital affair in the White House. To make matters even worse he
denied it under oath, something that led to a vote of impeachment against him.
That is why we should support Nixon. After all he was
never impeached; he stood down before Congress had the chance to. And Richard
Nixon did not do anything as unthinkable as getting a blow job from an intern.
No he just participated in some late night meetings organizing the breaking into
of the opponent’s party headquarters.
See what lead to the ultimate downfall of Bill Clinton
was one simple quote: “I did not have sexual relations with that womanâ€ÂÂ. That
was grounds enough for his impeachment because he made that statement under
oath, thereby committing perjury.
Now let’s look at some famous quotes by Richard Nixon
during the Watergate Scandal.
“Now here’s the point, Bob. Please get the names of the
Jews. You know, the big Jewish contributors to the Democrats. Could you please
investigate some of the cocksuckers? That’s all.” – Nixon to Bob Haldeman
“They have a lot of material. I want — the way I want
that handled, Bob, is: get it over. I want Brooking. Just break in. Break in and
take it out. You understand. “ – Nixon to Hadleman
So why is it that people like Ben Stein are now coming
out and defending Richard Nixon with quotes such as
“Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so
terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW’s, ended the war in
the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons
reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel’s life, started the Environmental
Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?â€ÂÂ
Well it’s simple. The Republicans have to once again
save face and downplay a scandal, this time one they thought was forgotten. Take
into consideration that the biggest scandal the Democratic Party has suffered
was Bill Clinton having an affair. This massively fails in comparison to such
scandals as Watergate and the Iran Contra affair.
Now we also got allegations President Bush led this
country into a war based on bad intelligence, which wanted forged. We here about
allegations of our military abuse its prisoners on a daily basis. And during all
this somehow they a keep spinning this unacceptable news and downplay it to
something minor. If the tables were turned and all this bad press was focused
upon the Democratic Party, I guarantee it would be a modern day witch hunt. The
extreme Christian right would be out there reciting scripture and calling for
the damnation of anyone who associated with the Democrats. Rush Limbaugh and Ann
Coulter would be on a hate spreading spree calling for the heads of those
involved.
But it’s not! All these scandals and morally corrupt
actions lie in the lap of the Republicans. They are not only a slap in the face
to America, but a harsh jab at our constitution.
So what does all this mean? Well being just a normal
citizen of the United States, a man with nothing more than a high school degree,
it does not take much to read into it. The Republicans are good at selling the
public on faith based issues. They want to act as your priest and source of
guidance in doing right, but they themselves don’t follow it. They follow a die
hard rule of “practice what I preach, not what I do†syndrome. They have their
workers out their pounding their hate messages into the ears of Americans
everyday, and Americans buy it.
On the other side you got the Democrats. They are the
representation of what America is about. They go to Washington in hopes to make
our country better. They understand that the faith of man is his own decision
and not a place for the government to get involved. They worry about doing their
jobs and doing them right. A simple affair has lead to more discontent towards
the Democrats than two major scandals, and continued allegations of even more
scandals has ever done to the Republicans. But the population as a whole has not
been backing the Democrats. The Democrats don’t have Bill O’Reilly promising a
no spin approach to the news turning everything around in their favor.
It is not that complicated of a situation. Don’t rely
upon the mainstream news to give you all the facts. They are giant corporations
whose main interest is making money, and the Republicans admittedly have the
deeper pockets to keep their negative press down.
People say the most important act a citizen of a
Democracy can engage in is to exercise his right to vote. While that statement
is very true, you must also remember that the greatest danger a democracy can
face is a misinformed voter. Our predecessors died fighting to give us the right
to make our decisions heard in the selection of our leaders. It is our duty to
honor their memory by making those decisions based upon fact and not upon high
dollar spin.