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Posted On: 12/21/2022 1:44:06 PM
Post# of 126693
Truth from Michael Beschloss:
Title-Watergate's lesson? If Democrats want to heal America, Trump must be held accountable
Accountability is essential to the long-term health of our democracy, more important than even healing the nation’s partisan divisions.
Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer Opinion contributors
Source-https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/04/democrats-impeach-trump-accountability-watergate-gerald-ford-richard-nixon-column/2762361002/?gps-source=AFPTNRIDN27795&utm_source=impact&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=27795&utm_content=1152291&irclickid=V2WQp-U1nxyNTrSVNMWnpWOhUkA2tmyJLykyy80&irgwc=1
snip-"The nation has continued to pay for its failure to hold Nixon accountable. The divisions that Ford had hoped to paper over with his pardon have only continued to widen. Moreover, the general trend — toward a vague sense of “healing” instead of holding specific wrongdoers accountable — has only continued to erode the public’s faith in government over the ensuing decades. High-level officials in the Reagan administration clearly subverted the law in the Iran-Contra scandal but escaped any real punishment thanks to pardons from President George H.W. Bush. War crimes committed during the George W. Bush administration, meanwhile, were swept under the rug when the Obama White House refused to insist on accountability there.
A president must be held accountable for crimes
The lessons are clear: If an administration commits crimes without being held accountable, the next commander in chief feels emboldened to keep skirting the rules and violating the public trust. It should not be a total surprise that Trump, who came of age in the decades surrounding the pardon, believes that he can skirt the formal limits of power without having to fear any sort of real blowback."
Turning a blind eye to abuses of power might heal the political careers of individual partisans, but it does nothing to heal the nation. Indeed, a lack of accountability only makes the popular resentment over Washington more pronounced and the partisan divide more deeply felt.."
more at source
Title-Watergate's lesson? If Democrats want to heal America, Trump must be held accountable
Accountability is essential to the long-term health of our democracy, more important than even healing the nation’s partisan divisions.
Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer Opinion contributors
Source-https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/04/democrats-impeach-trump-accountability-watergate-gerald-ford-richard-nixon-column/2762361002/?gps-source=AFPTNRIDN27795&utm_source=impact&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=27795&utm_content=1152291&irclickid=V2WQp-U1nxyNTrSVNMWnpWOhUkA2tmyJLykyy80&irgwc=1
snip-"The nation has continued to pay for its failure to hold Nixon accountable. The divisions that Ford had hoped to paper over with his pardon have only continued to widen. Moreover, the general trend — toward a vague sense of “healing” instead of holding specific wrongdoers accountable — has only continued to erode the public’s faith in government over the ensuing decades. High-level officials in the Reagan administration clearly subverted the law in the Iran-Contra scandal but escaped any real punishment thanks to pardons from President George H.W. Bush. War crimes committed during the George W. Bush administration, meanwhile, were swept under the rug when the Obama White House refused to insist on accountability there.
A president must be held accountable for crimes
The lessons are clear: If an administration commits crimes without being held accountable, the next commander in chief feels emboldened to keep skirting the rules and violating the public trust. It should not be a total surprise that Trump, who came of age in the decades surrounding the pardon, believes that he can skirt the formal limits of power without having to fear any sort of real blowback."
Turning a blind eye to abuses of power might heal the political careers of individual partisans, but it does nothing to heal the nation. Indeed, a lack of accountability only makes the popular resentment over Washington more pronounced and the partisan divide more deeply felt.."
more at source
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