I was glad when Nixon resigned.
We all were.
The Watergate hearings began during my second summer working for Senator John L. McClellan, and like much of the country, I watched a president finally cornered by the truth.
It mattered. It was satisfying. It felt like proof that even the most powerful man in America could be brought down by evidence, testimony, and law.
But that was before Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld showed us how much a government could get away with—war, torture, deception, catastrophic arrogance—and still walk away.
And it was before Trump showed us what happens when shame disappears altogether.
This audio essay traces the road from Nixon’s resignation to Bush-era impunity to Trump’s lawless presidency—and the terrible question underneath it all:
What happens when the powerful know they are not accountable — and the rest of us stop demanding that they should be?
Listen now.
Thank you for reading — and for listening.
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