You want emotion?
Deep Throat was a God. I worshipped him with countless bowls of incense.
It was a dark and scary time for anyone that knew what the Nixon White House was doing to this country.
Eroding democracy at a prodigious rate in three ways:
1- Using public office for private enrichment.
Let’s see…damn cobwebs….grain scandal, ITT scandal, several housing scandals, federal Bank Charter scandal, suddenly aborted anti-trust suits. Oh yeah, the milk deal, blatantly blackmailing the Dairy Farmers Assoc for several hundred grand in campaign donations before raising the federal price supports on milk.
There have always been politicians that lined their pockets while in office, but they did so in whispers, clandestinely and if it became public knowledge most of them slithered away or were summarily dismissed.
Tricky Dick & Company, however, were blatantly out in the open with their systematic fouling of the democratic system for personal gain.
2-Secret campaign funds kept offshore.
A large network of spies, burglars, security coordinators and saboteurs, bugging phones, wiring offices, forging documents and carrying guns to intimidate anyone questioning them.
All this with blessings from the very top crook.
3-Usurping constitutional powers by the White House.
Invading Cambodia and bombing Laos on Nixon’s say so, without the advice and consent of Congress.
Instead of vetoing bills he didn’t support and then live with the decision of Congress on an override vote, Nixon ordered an Executive Impoundment of funding for federal programs he didn’t like.
Something like 25 billion dollars worth. (That’s early 1970s dollars)
There was a war going on….and on….and on, with no likely end. It became apparent that winning was out of the question. They weren’t even trying to win just stop the commies from winning.
Besides, war is handy for taking those colored boys, redneck hillbillies, and long haired hippie types and making good citizens out of them. The Army does that you know.
Since Johnson declared we could have “guns
and butter,” most middle class and up families weren’t affected too much other than the evening news was not conducive to watching during supper.
Oh they might lose a son here and there but more likely the maid’s son, gardener’s son or car mechanic’s son.
People, like my parents, coming from very humble beginnings and rising with the post WW II prosperity to become the middleclass, were living better that they had hoped to and were making the payments on time.
They still believed in the government and certainly didn’t want to rock their financial boat.
They were scared to death of communism, the bomb and hippies.
Except for a few screams in the night, the only recognition that all this shit was going on and more importantly it was WRONG, was the Washington Post/Woodward/Bernstein/Deep Throat.
To suggest Deep Throat could have gone to Congress or the Press is silly.
IF THEY KNEW WHO HE WAS THEY WOULD NOT HAVE EXAMINED THE FACTS.
They’d have shot the messenger.
I’ve made the same plea here in the Cellar. Read the post – evaluate it on its merits – don’t disregard good information because you don’t like or trust the person posting.
Even we idiots are right, sometimes even brilliant, on rare occasions.
Anyway, Deep Throat was a God that shone like a beacon in a dark and stormy night.
