A U.S. president left office before the end of his term, disgraced by his unethical and undemocratic behavior.
I do not, for the life of me, understand, even as I do understand - the pragmatics, logistics, politics and zeitgeist in we find ourselves living - how this president may not face a moment of shame, accountability, and Constitutional redress from his country and fellow citizens as dramatic as the one documented in that photograph.
Nixon leaving the White House shortly before his resignation became effective, August 9, 1974.
In a nationally televised address that occurred on an evening 33 years ago yesterday, Nixon announced he would resign from the office of the Presidency, effective at Noon ET, Friday, August 9, 1974. The caption for this photograph, located at Wikipedia, states that:
The helicopter took him from the White House to Andrews Air Force base in Maryland. While in the air, Nixon would later write that he remembered thinking "As the helicopter moved on to Andrews, I found myself thinking not of the past, but of the future. at could I do now?...". At Andrews base, he boarded Air Force One to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in California and then to his new home in San Clemente.
The photograph was taken by Oliver F. Atkins, August 9, 1974.
Even as many parallels continue to mount - subpoenas, "executive privilege" - I fear that this administration will not face a level of judicious but righteous retribution appropriate for their many dissimulations, prevarications and slanders, and attacks on the Constitution, on the barest standards of enlightened thought and ethical behavior, and on the citizens of this country and their rights and expectations.