"If you took all the girls I knew when I was single
And brought 'em all together for one night
I know they'd never match my sweet imagination
Everything looks worse in black and white."
Paul Simon, "Kodachrome," 1973
I remember the Watergate era, 1972 to 1974, as a story with a happy ending.
American democracy was preserved. Justice was done. Republican senators did the right thing and told Nixon that he had crossed the line, and must leave. Nixon's co-conspirators went to prison. This memory isn't my "sweet imagination." Things really did work out for America.
The Epstein matter is in progress. The outcome is unknown. Reality feels gritty and sleazy. Real life plays out in black and white.
The Epstein matter reminds me of Watergate. Both instances start with denial by the president.
The Watergate and Epstein denials fell apart because some people were caught, proving something needed explanation. Police arrested men who were burglarizing the Watergate offices of the Democratic Party. The men had incentives to talk. Ghislaine Maxwell faces almost 20 more years. She had a story to tell. The coverup required keeping people quiet and documents secret.
In both instances the crime was too awful to confess. Nixon's campaign burglarized the DNC on instructions from Nixon's top people. That is a felony. A high crime. Donald Trump is up to his eyeballs in evidence showing he was part of Epstein's circle of participants in sex play with underage girls.
The "limited hangout" approach failed in both cases. The slow dribble of revelations preserves the drama in an unfolding mystery. A metamessage emerges, that the president is fighting to hide the truth. He must be guilty of something. Nixon needed to claim "I am not a crook." Trump is in the same position, slowly retreating behind the moving wall of new revelations.
Trump is losing credibility, even with deep MAGA believers. People see things. Images of Trump and Epstein ogling women at a party. Emails and documents mentioning Trump. Video footage showing Trump bragging about behavior and desires that fit the Epstein narrative. It looked bad twenty years ago.
It looks very bad in the context of the Epstein revelations.
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We don't yet know exactly what Trump is guilty of, but it is undeniable that Trump was deep inside a culture of sexuality and privilege of wealthy men with young girls.
The Nixon and Trump presidencies lost critical public support because the public was offended by a matter of personal behavior. Evidence that Nixon had corrupted the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA didn't move the needle of support. Knowing that Nixon swore casually and frequently, did. Nixon leaned on people's respect for the office, if not himself personally.
Americans of polite sensibilities, good Republican churchgoers, were offended that Nixon swore in a sacred space.
Trump's well-established dalliances with models, beauty queens, and porn stars did not have the creepy illegality of sex acts with 12-and-13-year-olds, and this week, a new email the addition of a nine-year-old to Epstein's harem. The revelations passed a tipping point. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis (R) announced that the news about models in their young teens had her questioning "what the big deal is?" Now she says she knows. A nine-year-old victim crosses the line for her.
John Dean narrated the story of Nixon's involvement in the immediate aftermath of the Watergate burglary. Ghislaine Maxwell is no John Dean. Her incentive is to lie, but the open quid-pro-quo "I will absolve you, President Trump, if you pardon me" is so open that it has no real value other than to document that Trump would happily corrupt the pardon power for personal gain. Both cases rely on documents, not testimony. Watergate had tapes. Epstein has emails, texts, and videotape. The documents paint a picture that even a Wyoming Republican officeholder cannot ignore.
I would have preferred that Trump lose credibility and power because of his crimes against democracy. That is his affront to the republic. Maybe Republican officeholders and Fox News viewers will rediscover that they care about laws and the Constitution and limits on presidential power once Trump is gone from office. But for now, the Epstein revelations that Trump is even sleazier than people realized is a catalyst for Trump's losing public support. It will serve.
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6 comments:
Heard it said that he raped a 12 or 13 year old girl, that even Fox news would not minimize. Gee, Trump’s morality being a problem for him and others is so surprising. Being openly racist is ok, being openly corrupt is ok, lies constantly is ok, but raping little girls is where the line is finally drawn, just like in prison. Republicans have found their moral counterparts, the prison morality code.
I am not averse to seeing Trump held accountable for something he actually did. But so far, all I see here is guilt by association, a mode of attack with a really bad history.
Peter, you like lyrics! Name That Tune:
"I still remember
When you used to be 9 years old.
Yeah, yeah!
I was a fool for you, from the bottom of my soul.
Yeah.
Now that you’ve grown up enough to know
You wanna leave me, you wanna let me go."
The difference with Watergate is that his own party in Congress knew he would not survive impeachment. I would like to think they urged him to resign for the good of the country. Nixon was not a cult figure who terrified or “owned” those in his party the way Trump does. A recent article in the Atlantic about pro-Trump Christian social influencers are now telling their followers to ignore the news and get on with their lives… nothing to see there. Denial. Some polls I read say most republicans are ignoring the Epstein mess. The boundaries of what is considered outrageous continue to flex.
It would be ridiculous to imagine that Trump could be good buddies with Epstein for over 15 years and not be participating in what Trump loved and Epstein was all about: pedophilia and statutory rape. Yet over 40% of the electorate simply shrugs it off, along with his coup attempt, blatant corruption and general criminality. Some say Epstein, Epstein, Epstein is the new Russia, Russia, Russia, as if Russia helping elect Trump was no big deal. It’s hard to believe that in my lifetime the U.S. was looked to as the leader of the free world.
You make me want to shout--kick my heels up and shout... When you were in the fourth grade, didn't you have a crush on some fourth grade girl? Did she make a fool of you? That happened to me in the fourth grade.
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