The\u00a0Nixon Tapes give us a classic example of abuse of power, as\u00a0demonstrated by\u00a0the following examples.\u00a0 The scary thing is, he almost got away with it.\u00a0 In\u00a0the political circles of Washington, this\u00a0was seen as\u00a0fairly normal behavior until it was brought to\u00a0public attention.<\/p>\n
June 30, 1971<\/p>\n
Nixon wants to get the goods on Ellsberg,\u00a0to stop publication of\u00a0the Pentagon Papers.<\/p>\n
Nixon: “The way I want that handled, Bob, is.. just to break in.\u00a0 Break in and take it out!\u00a0 You understand!
\nHaldeman:\u00a0 But who do we have to do it?
\nNixon:\u00a0 Well, don’t discuss it here.\u00a0 You talk to… You’re to break into the place, rifle the files, and bring me….
\nHaldeman:\u00a0 I don’t have any problem with breaking in. This isn’t a domestic.\u00a0 This isn’t a foreign, approved security.
\nNixon: Just go in and take it.\u00a0 Go in around eight nine o’clock and clean it up.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSeptember 8, 1971.<\/p>\n
Nixon wants to loose the IRS on his major opponents.<\/p>\n
Nixon:\u00a0“John [Erlichman], we have the power.\u00a0 Are we using it now to investigate contributors to Hubert Humphrey, contributors to Muskie, the Jews, you know, that are stealing in every direction.\u00a0 Are we going after their tax returns?\u00a0 You know what I mean?\u00a0 There’s a lot of gold in them thar hills.\u00a0 I can only hope we’re doing a little persecuting.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
September 8, 1972<\/p>\n
Nixon:\u00a0 “I’d a helluva lot rather have them talking about this [Watergate] than the fact we are the party of the rich and that prices are high.\u00a0 This story is not helpful but, to the average guy, whether the Republicans bugged the Democrats doesn’t mean a goddamned thing.\u00a0 It means something to intellectuals.\u00a0 It means something to people who are concerned about repression and credibility and all that bullshit.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We were fortunate that these plans came to light, but we can’t assume it was ever a sure thing.\u00a0 In this case, only the hubris of taping brought this travesty to light.\u00a0 It should be remembered that both the Weimar Republic and Soviet Union had excellent Constitutions, that\u00a0arguably established freedom and justice every bit as well as ours.\u00a0 When does a Constitution become\u00a0just a piece of paper?\u00a0 Our Constitution\u00a0names the President as Commander in Chief of the military.\u00a0 Congress has abrogated (and perhaps lost) its power to declare war, not having done so for more than half a century, and that was many wars ago.\u00a0 If\u00a0the United States were\u00a0ever faced with disruptions comparable to the civil wars of Germany and the Soviet Union in the past, could we expect anything better\u00a0from our Constitution than what resulted in those countries?<\/p>\n
“The professors are the enemy.\u00a0 Write that on a blackboard 100 times and never forget it.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 December 14, 1972<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The\u00a0Nixon Tapes give us a classic example of abuse of power, as\u00a0demonstrated by\u00a0the following examples.\u00a0 The scary thing is, he almost got away with it.\u00a0 In\u00a0the political circles of Washington, this\u00a0was seen as\u00a0fairly normal behavior until it was brought to\u00a0public attention. June 30, 1971 Nixon wants to get the goods on Ellsberg,\u00a0to stop publication of\u00a0the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}