General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Michael Beschloss makes a really important point [View all]irisblue
(32,928 posts)The article was published during the first impeachment of the apricothellbeast, so it speaks to that point.
source-https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/04/democrats-impeach-trump-accountability-watergate-gerald-ford-richard-nixon-column/2762361002/
title-Watergate's lesson? If Democrats want to heal America, Trump must be held accountable
snip-"Accountability is essential to the long-term health of our democracy, more important than even healing the nations partisan divisions."
snip-"The United States learned this lesson 45 years ago. In August 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned from office in disgrace as soon as it became clear that the House would vote to impeach him for obstructing justice in the Watergate scandal and, moreover, that the Senate would likely vote to remove him from office. In a flash, Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the presidency."
snip-" On Sept. 8, 1974, Ford announced to the nation on television that he was issuing a free, full and absolute pardon to Nixon for any crimes he might have committed as president. Further legal investigations and prosecutions would paralyze the nation, Ford warned, as ugly passions would again be roused, our people would again be polarized in their opinions, and the credibility of our free institutions of government would again be challenged at home and abroad.
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 publics 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."
more there, worth the time to read IMO