Happy Richard Nixon resignation day! We realize that after 50-plus years, lots of people nowadays don't personally remember the cascading events of Watergate. But what a saga it was! We were watching the destruction of a truly corrupt Republican President — knowing all the while that the guardrails of a solidly secure constitutional democracy would hold firm. (That's the difference between then and now.)
It was mesmerizing to watch Nixon's speech in the East Room that morning. It was true stream-of-consciousness, from "the poorest lemon ranch in Southern California" to his warning that "those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself."
All of us who despised Nixon marveled at his comment about hate. It revealed, we thought, some self-awareness that the GOP, and the media, maybe should acknowledge. But in the decades since, we realize that Republicans have never come clean on this. In fact, they hate more than ever, and the press has given them a pass. We cats HISS.
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