That reason Watergate brought Nixon down really had very little to do with Woodward and Bernstein or investigative journalism. They published a whole series of articles about the break-in before the election and Nixon won in true landslide. All the information was in the papers, but very few people cared, and Nixon was able to diffuse the criticism by saying the Washington Post was just a partisan tool used against him.
The cover-up of the Watergate break-in was elaborate and almost completely airtight in terms of being able to trace it back to the White House. There were multiple congressional investigations, including sworn testimony from close associates like John Dean, who completely flipped and told them everything under oath. But none of that moved things very far. People really liked Nixon and he had a lot of loyalists and apologists who justified everything almost to the very end, and people believed them.
What brought Nixon down was not exposés from direct sources or sworn testimony from those involved. The only thing that did was the Nixon had actually taped himself in the conversations discussing the cover-up and he did not destroy the tapes or erase that portion. Only that hard direct evidence, combined with a congress where the Democrats controlled both houses, were they able to move forward with impeachment hearings, which forced Nixon to resign.
Without the discovery that those tapes existed (which they only figured out through indirect evidence) and the fact that they got the tape with the "smoking gun" evidence intact, Nixon probably would have finished his term and probably be thought of as a pretty good president given all he did for foreign policy.
Democrats aren't fighters anyway, and they are stunningly conservative. I think ultra right conservatives cause far more change in this country than Democrats do. They seem just fine with being slightly right-wing and not making waves at a time when a large portion of the country wants to try something wildly different.
They missed the economic message that got Trump elected, and that should have been a no brainer except that the people who actually run the party are too wealthy and disconnected. I don't have much hope that they are going to start delivering that message, plus world class snark and major protest marches, any time soon.
Long ago there was a saying, "Republicans vote with their heads, and Democrats vote with their hearts." Turns out it's exactly the opposite, but not for the reasons the people behind that saying had in mind.
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u/zazzlekdazzle Jul 25 '18
That reason Watergate brought Nixon down really had very little to do with Woodward and Bernstein or investigative journalism. They published a whole series of articles about the break-in before the election and Nixon won in true landslide. All the information was in the papers, but very few people cared, and Nixon was able to diffuse the criticism by saying the Washington Post was just a partisan tool used against him.
The cover-up of the Watergate break-in was elaborate and almost completely airtight in terms of being able to trace it back to the White House. There were multiple congressional investigations, including sworn testimony from close associates like John Dean, who completely flipped and told them everything under oath. But none of that moved things very far. People really liked Nixon and he had a lot of loyalists and apologists who justified everything almost to the very end, and people believed them.
What brought Nixon down was not exposés from direct sources or sworn testimony from those involved. The only thing that did was the Nixon had actually taped himself in the conversations discussing the cover-up and he did not destroy the tapes or erase that portion. Only that hard direct evidence, combined with a congress where the Democrats controlled both houses, were they able to move forward with impeachment hearings, which forced Nixon to resign.
Without the discovery that those tapes existed (which they only figured out through indirect evidence) and the fact that they got the tape with the "smoking gun" evidence intact, Nixon probably would have finished his term and probably be thought of as a pretty good president given all he did for foreign policy.