I remember the fighting between people during Watergate. My brother and a co-worker were on

[wasupaloopa]

Nixon's side. My brother was a Green Beret captain in the Army and worked with Donald Segretti at Fort Ord.

Segretti was the dirty tricks operative for CRP the committee to reelect the President. He was getting out of the Army the same time my brother was and he offered my brother a job with CRP. My brother felt there would be anarchy if Nixon wasn't reelected, but he did not work for CRP.

We watched Nixon's resignation speech at my brother's house. We have never mentioned Nixon to each other again.

My coworker hated the Kennedy's. She loved Nixon. I remember her saying "stick to your guns", meaning Nixon, every time we heard a negative news report about Watergate. We listened to the radio while we worked. The rest of us hated Nixon.

My coworker like many other Nixon supporters denied they ever supported Nixon during Watergate after he resigned.


The country was pretty divided over Watergate.

I suspect that much the same will happen if there are impeachment hearings about Trump.

With Watergate we had Republicans willing to put the country before politics. We also had a pretty objective press then.

I hope those last two things are with us this time also.

[herding cats]

1. Watergate predates me, but I heard my family discussing it growing up.

There was more than once I heard recriminations cast toward family members who had supported Nixon. It was polarizing beyond the event by many years per my personal exposure.

I believe Trump and this administration are worse than Nixon's and Watergate. At least it's looking that way at this moment. I also think our polarization is deeper, but that's purely based on my own experiences watching as political polarization has increased over my adult life.

[murielm99]

2. I lived in red DuPage County in Illinois

at that time. I remember people who supported Nixon unconditionally.

That changed when Ford pardoned Nixon. I ran into republicans who were truly disgusted by the pardon. I was a Democrat then, as I am now. I was ready to move on. I was not that upset by the pardon, but they were.

[Phoenix61]

3. Watergate seems rather juvenile

compared to this mess. The underlying action then was a b&e. The underlying action now is colluding with a hostile nation to undermined the presidential election process.

[C Moon]

4. Great post, wasupaloopa

[modrepub]

5. CREEP

was a better anachronym for the Committee to Reelect the President.

[Amaryllis]

6. The difference is back then we did not have cable news creating parallel universes that don't

intersect like we do now. THe country is vastly more polarized due to Faux.

[wasupaloopa]

7. The country is more polarized as a whole but the country was equally polarized in the 70's due to

Last edited Thu May 18, 2017, 01:53 AM - Edit history (1)

the Vietnam War and all the turmoil that happened in the 60's. We had 3 assassinations and an attempted assassination along with students being killed at Kent State. We had the war and the civil rights battles and the burning cities and the police riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention along with campus unrest and sit ins.

The 70's polarization subsided but began anew starting with Reagan. The 60's and early 70's were as equally or more divisive than today in my opinion. Up until Trump we hadn't felt that the country was coming apart at the seems as we did in the 60's and 70's.

I think it is difficult for people who did not live through those times to not see them in the context of today's events.

[Amaryllis]

8. I see the difference now as being that people literally live in alternate universes now and there

is no way to bridge. I have a close friend with whom I went to college in the late 60s/early 70s - the height of the Vietnam protests...who has become a Fox watcher, and also my brother. Both smart people but completely brainwashed and hypnotized by Fox. There is no way for us even to talk about politics because their universe is made up of very different facts than mine is. There is no intersection. It was deeply divided back then, but we only had the three networks. I think right wing media has manufactured a lot of the deep polarization we see now.

[wasupaloopa]

10. I agree with what you said

[HAB911]

9. I fear the pro-Trumpers will become violent