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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   21329 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026

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What those who don't remember politics before Trump miss is that the people hyping-up the Mueller investigation still thought we were in the Watergate era of political scandals. Their mindset was that they just needed a fancy report in PDF format formally accusing Trump of firing Comey to cover up the Russia investigation, and then Trump would be finished.

The Supreme Court has since ruled that this is constitutionally protected conduct, but no one back in 2017 would have considered such a ruling to be possible.

I really feel like the popular narrative of Watergate was completely detached from reality to begin with. Nixon did things that were wrong, sure, but I'm pretty sure basically every modern president does things at least that bad. You would have to be profoundly naive about that for the accusations made of Nixon to stand out as a unique stain on the presidency. It was basically a hit job by someone or something, and insofar as Nixon was driven by paranoia, he was right to be; he just screwed up the implementation.

I feel like this is just an argument for applying a similar level of scrutiny and accountability to everybody else. Or better yet, an even harsher standard than that precedent. I rather like the idea of my leaders being too afraid of the consequences to attempt any ratfucking.

Oh, to be clear, 100% agreed.

I mean, Mark Felt did turn out to be Deep Throat. And wasn't E. Howard Hunt one of those involved in spying on Goldwater for LBJ?

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