I lived in Argentina in the early ‘70s for a year and a half. Being one of the youngest kids in my family, I went with my parents when my father was transferred with a large multinational corporation. Nixon just won his second election (damn). Watergate was barely on the radar. Allende had just won in Chile. I was not a happy camper leaving my high school for an even smaller high school in the burbs of Buenos Aires. I had to board with strangers because my parents lived 4 hours away.
Shortly after we arrived, Allende in neighboring Chile was overthrown with the help of the CIA. The military junta ruling Argentina decided to have elections (that hadn’t happened in years) and mild hell was breaking loose in several South American countries. The junta wouldn’t let Juan Peron come back and run. Americans started being kidnapped and held for ransom. BTW, some American companies didn’t pay ransom. I was at my parents’ apartment for a weekend visit when the building shook. Some group blew up a building across the street. I looked out the window and saw a smoking hole in the ground. A half hour later, the fire department showed up. They didn’t want to get in the middle of anything.
My dad had guards, and the school had guards with German Shepherds. Then the guerillas started killing hostages. The Peronista candidate, a dentist, won. He resigned several months later. Juan Peron came back. We stayed indoors. My brother and I begged our parents to let us finish high school in the States. They finally agreed and my mother brought us back to the States, settled us with family and friends and went back to Argentina. Argentines are lovely people and they deserved a much better government.
I started my senior year of high school. I came back to a country in the middle of the Watergate hearings. Turns out, my parents came back in time for Christmas, much soon than expected. The company got tired of the ransom, the threats, and one dead American employee and pulled all their American employees out.
During Watergate, we had real statesmen (there wasn’t much of a female presence in Congress) who actually cared about the rule of law and governance in the republican party even though their fiscal ideas were terrible. Government functioned. Nixon resigned and a lot of his administration, including his AG, went to prison. Of course Agnew and Kissinger should have been incarcerated too but for other crimes not connected to Watergate.
The people of Chile and Argentina suffered physically and economically. But as an American, I knew my government worked. It rooted our corruption, followed the law, and a new president and cabinet peacefully and legally replaced the previous corrupt one.
Reagan and the corruption of the republican party started the decline of my country. I don’t recognize it any more. Trump is the culmination of everything the republicans worked for decades to achieve.
Biden and all the Democrats in Congress have to root out all the corruption and all those responsible for it. Ever since Reagan (I would even argue since the Civil War) we have allowed the zombie confederate vampires to keep coming back, each time more powerful. This is make or break. Everything is broken in government had it is going to take monumental action to fix it. Biden and his team can’t hesitate, can’t do the kumbaya. They have to take out those who created this hell.