Has our country really recovered from the 1999… impeachment of President Bill Clinton? The stifling partisanship tearing apart our republic can largely be traced to this event. Would our political process be in better shape today had Clinton resigned rather than drag the process to a Senate trial? Examples in our history have been ignored, due to the partisanship that still controls the interpretation of the events. Democrats still crow about their “victory” over the sinister Richard Nixon. Nixon’s resignation is commonly considered the last cowardly act of a beaten politician. So says the popular breeze…
The Watergate scandal shook our government… to its foundation, and there was no impeachment of the President. One can only imagine the consternation and irreparable damage the Senate trial of Nixon would have caused during an already tumultuous decade. Nixon’s resignation should be seen as the best resolution to the deep stain of the Watergate era. The trouble with this interpretation is that it flies in the face of 40 years of conventional thought. Aging politicos who still bear grudges are not ready to let Nixon fade away. They will defend the equally dodgy Clinton regardless of the impact on discourse, but cannot bring themselves to reexamine Nixon’s painful, yet proper decision.
It’s time to learn…
