I'm old enough to recall the Watergate era - and Senate hearings that were bi-partisan unlike today- and of course the impeachment - but not conviction of Bill Clinton which was silly as all they got for their Starr investigation of Whitewater at a cost of $72 million was Clinton lying about sex in the Oval office.
If there was one major difference in the Watergate era it was that Republicans were more principled and we didn't have the personal attack politics of today. When Nixon was told by Senators like Barry Goldwater that he'd not their support in the Senate who would convict Nixon if the House impeached him Nixon did the right thing and resigned.
New President Ford who had to be appointed VIce President as Spiro Agnew went to prison for wrong doing as a Governor pardoned Nixon even before being charged and that included crimes unknown.
Ford believed that pardoning Nixon would spare the country a long, divisive time putting a former President through the legal system and of course there was the theory - still around - that suggests a President might not be indicted even out of office. The other theory for the pardon was that he thought it'd end this and he'd be re-elected but lost to Carter. Also he was friends with Nixon.
But we live in interesting times and Omarosa back in 2015 suggested to Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post following one of the Clinton - Trump debates something he recently said he printed but didn't really understand what she was on about:
Omarosa Manigault, who appeared in 75 episodes over three seasons of Trump’s hit reality television show “The Apprentice,” believes Trump was “spectacular” in the debate. The die-hard Democrat who jokingly said she has “Hillary Clinton tattooed on my left arm,” also said that “there’s a different analysis and metrics you have to use” when analyzing the Big Apple billionaire’s appeall.
Whether we like Omarasa or not, I'd can't argue with what I see on TV every day that she is not right - at least with Trump's base!
As Presidential historian said last night - even Sen Joe McCarthy had a 34% approval rate after being censured!!! Trump can always rely the underbelly of racism, hate and feelings that the OLD America that old whites liked is changed and they want it back.
“Reality television has now taken over television. People want to see real moments and see life unfold in front of them. Not scripted, but real moments,” Omarosa said. When I pushed back and asked whether the reality TV ethos should be bleeding into presidential politics, she set me straight.
“[W]hen you have a big reality TV star as the front-runner for the Republican nomination there is no way to separate it. This is the new reality. Donald Trump is the front-runner and you have to deal with everything that comes with it,” Omarosa said. “He’s going to have to give his position on serious issues and he may also call people pigs but that’s part of the Trump thing that comes with the package.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/po ... 948315d05f
This article is a must read if you want to know how this guy is still standing.
Even on our worst days in Canada where a Tory goes off on barbaric practices laws or more recently Maxime Bernier in his anti-immigrant rant we should be grateful that most Canadians won't buy this stuff.
Again I'm old enough to remember the moms of Italian friends who wouldn't go to the store for fear of some white person telling them to speak English. Also friends of mine my age whose parents were of Chinese descent who would not teach them their language out of fear. And we know what happened to indigenous peoples who used their languages or engaged in their cultural practices.
A recent example was the attempted smearing of Chrystia Freeland by the Russians. It came out that when she became a fed Lib cabinet minister that her grandfather - a newspaper editor in WW2 was a Nazi collaborator. The story was attributed in FB to Ukrainians in Canada who researched her out of curiosity which given the fake news on FB caused others to question these unnamed Ukrainians in Edmonton who got together. Turns out it was the Russian military unit as she as a reporter had been banned from traveling to Russia - and still is.
Canadians don't buy these fake news in large numbers.