Today I mentioned that little news story that seeped out over the weekend, the one about Richard Nixon committing treason to win the presidency in 1968. I was telling a 20 something at work how it has just come out that Nixon sabotaged the Paris Peace Talks by telling the South Vietnamese government if they'd hold off negotiating seriously until after the election, he'd give them a better deal.
Johnson had gotten the North Vietnamese to the point where he was ready to call a halt to bombing in exchange for their making some serious offers. Tricky Dick cut the ground out from under him.
The war went on for years, an additional 22,000 Americans died, not to mention all the Vietnamese casualties (and Laos and Cambodia). Nixon sold out his country to win the White House, and if not for Watergate, would have served out 2 terms with no consequences. If you want to know where things started going seriously wrong with our political system, that has to be one of the tipping points. It's certainly been the model for Republicans ever since.
But that's not what really bothers me.
The reaction of the person I was telling this to? "That's why I don't get involved in politics."
You know, it's that kind of reaction that makes me begin to think that maybe this coming generation is really going to deserve what happens to them.