Nixon Resigned: Fifty Years Ago Today
by Christine Merser
Action Item:
Do not click on the links about DT’s sentencing in September, or the days leading up to it. Click on the links about what the Harris-Walz campaign intends to do. Do not allow the news cycle to be interrupted with DT’s talking points around the liberal machine illegally taking him down. Don’t click.
I think it was about nine o’clock at night on August 8th, 1974, fifty years ago today, that we gathered at Crystal Lake Lodge in the Adirondacks. Think "Dirty Dancing." Middle-class liberals came and stayed in cabins for a week, and I was a waitress, receiving tips on Sunday and dancing late into the night all summer with other summer employee peeps.
They had set up a TV (no TVs in the rooms) and chairs, and I stood at the back, a soon-to-be college junior at the University of Nebraska, where I had voted for Nixon the year before. I wasn’t a real Republican. I wasn’t anything at all, really. My parents were Republicans, so I was too, I thought.
Nixon went on, and I could feel his shame and discomfort. I could feel his rage too. Then he said it: “Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow.”
And the room erupted. Cheers.
In June this year, (was it only two months ago?), I heard the same cheers, when Trump was declared guilty by a jury of his peers. People danced in the street. Friends posted things about DT in orange jumpsuits, and ‘oh happy day.’ My peers were filled with euphoria. I didn’t feel it.
Back to 1974.
I stood at the back of the room at Crystal Lake Lodge and silently wept. I love my country. All these years later, even after all that has happened in the past decade, I still write it in the present tense. I thought it was a very sad day when the President of the United States had to resign for cheating, lying, corruption, and most importantly, total disregard for the laws of our country and the Constitution that I had never read but thought meant we didn’t do those things.
And when DT was convicted, I also cried with sadness, fear, and shame. It’s a sad moment in our history when a man like DT has support to run for president after a conviction like he received by a jury of his peers. A sad day in America.
And what really frightens me is the following: when Nixon resigned, he hadn’t a friend in the country. We felt that our safety valves worked. He didn’t get away with it. Those who assisted him were in jail. All was safe in the Republic.
But now, many men and women in power - and in the press - put out major untruths (oh, wait, I think they are called lies) and support him. They say it wasn’t a jury of his peers, but rather, a liberal conspiracy and the breakdown of democracy. Many people in powerful positions lie - often. They don’t believe the words they speak. They say it to preserve their own power and money sources. Simple.
And the press? They showed it all. They didn’t ask the questions they should to uncover the lies, and Americans similar to me back in 1974, uninformed and part of a "Lord of the Flies" mentality of following the group that mirrors who they think they are, took sides and prepared for battle.
Friends reached out, and I said, “This is not a victory for anything.”
Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. Judge Juan Merchan said the former president will now be sentenced on September 18, “if such is still necessary.” Still necessary? Why wasn’t that - isn’t that - still headlines? If he does time, or is sentenced to prison time, I think he could win the election. I think it could be the rallying cry needed to get his lackluster following to shine again. And if he doesn’t, then justice was ignored out of fear. Lose-lose, my friends.
This is a sad day in American history. I mark it every year as a sad day, and a reminder that I am obligated as a citizen to not just stand at the back of the room, powerless. I am required to step forward and demand the best from those I empower to lead me.
Today I’m also buoyed up by the possible future in front of us. That’s what I’m clicking on today. Go team Harris-Walz! Onward. The best just might be yet to come.