Can the Odd-toed Ungulates Save Democracy?
How’s your Summer going? Oddly enough I’ve been thinking about what I was doing in the summers of 1972 and 1974, 50 and 48 years ago respectively. If you’re into history and politics those dates may ring a bell.
I was 10-years-old in June of 1972. I imagine I was saving my paper route money for the upcoming greatest holiday ever for pre-teen boys — The 4th of July!
Meanwhile, out in Washington, D.C. the president’s press secretary was answering a question about the arrests of five men caught trying to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel. The reporter asked what President Nixon had to say about one of the men who was active in Nixon’s re-election campaign. The spokesperson told the reporter that the president would not comment on a “third-rate burglary attempt”.
By the time the calendar changed to winter The U.S. Senate had established a select committee to investigate.
Like most 10-years olds, I was fascinated. Okay, yea I was weird. There wasn’t a group of pre-teen boys gathering around the TV to watch history unfold. Yet there I was watching as the Senate investigation revealed the existence of audiotapes that proved to be incriminating to President Nixon, and ultimately led to his resignation on August 8, 1974.
I remember vividly watching Nixon’s resignation speech that August evening in a hotel room with my mom as we were traveling to visit my grandparents. The next day’s Lincoln Star had this editorial:
“Finally, It is Over. Watergate as we have known it the past two years has finally been laid to rest, by the only man who could have done so.”
Inevitably, those two summers of my youth led to a lifetime of interest and work in and around politics. However, the passion and zeal of my youth gave way to disappointment and disillusionment with today’s politics, especially on the national front.
The 50th anniversary of Watergate is occurring at the same time we are facing another political crisis in the highest office in the land. Pundits are drawing parallels between the behavior and actions of Richard Nixon and Donald Trump and the January 6 investigation.
And unlike Watergate, today’s party of the president is not holding him accountable. In fact quite the opposite. Those who once found common ground around taxes, national defense and self-government, are either looking the other way or tacitly accepting that the election was “stolen”. And the rest of us are now trying to make sense of a president who refused to accept hundreds of years of precedent and peacefully and humbly accept defeat. And those of us who won’t go along with the “Big Lie” are referred to as Republicans in Name Only — RINOs or as they are known scientifically, odd-toed ungulates.
So here we are in the Summer of 2022. A Congressional investigation is in full swing. With testimony revealing unbelievable threats to our democracy and edge-of-your-seat drama demanding the nation’s attention once again. And by the way, those earth shattering truths aren’t coming from the opposition party of the president. The damage is coming from the president’s own staff.
At this point it’s anyone’s guess what the outcome will inevitably be. Will our grandchildren look back one day and thank “RINOs” like Rep. Liz Cheney and others who are trying to peel back the curtain of truth and save our nation from a demagogue hell bent on destroying it? Hang on, it could be a very long winter.
Dan Parsons is a divorced, empty-nester father of 3, CEO of Parsons Public Relations, Inc. and host of the podcast Pints & Politics with Dan Parsons. Dan has spent the past 3 decades telling stories and managing crises for political leaders, corporations, government agencies and many other business executives and Thought Leaders. Connect with him on Twitter @AskDanThePRMan
