“All the President’s Men”

I was part of the problem for half of my life, totally complacent, and then for a long time my attention only extended to election times. I still find it mind boggling. It seems to me that even the few who get into it because they want to serve their constituents are quickly buried under the greed and corruption, either because they succumb to it or they simply can’t overcome it. I’ve noticed the worse it’s gotten the more I seem to hear “the American people.” The gaslights are blinding.

I don't know, maybe I just lived in another time when we were taught critical thinking in school, and got real time exposure to the nature of politics through student body and class elections, as well as Boys and Girls State, where elections were not only about popularity. Political power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our founders' vision of Congress being a part-time gig, where farmers and shopkeepers spent their vacation/downtime in Washington for a couple of weeks, never truly existed.

Then I remember that the major part of my political education came from my parents, who religiously debated political events, conventions, and not in ideological or mythological terms but in trying to gain glimpses into how the sausage was being made. (My mother was the first in either side of the family to go to college and tended to have a broader, yet conservative, perspective; my father never made it to high school, but was intelligent, well-read, and observant as well as being more conservative in the rugged individualism stream of the cowboy he was.)

And my graduate course came in the print shop at lunch in high school, with two older classmates (Bob Meisenbach, who gave my nominating speech for Student Body President, and Carroll Selph). Meisenbach is considered the Father of the Sixties, the ex-Marine tried for allegedly hitting a SF police officer with his own baton, who was not only acquitted but his trial exposed the FBI's provocateur and disinformation efforts under J. Edgar Hoover. Both he and Carroll were flushed down the steps of SF City Hall's rotunda for protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee hearing.

I’ve both read this book and seen the movie based upon it that starred Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman. Watergate happened while I was in high school. We both studied about it and watched tv news reports in real time.

A president having to resign was the biggest political scandal a lot of us had seen up to that point. Pop says at the time he wondered if there would be another GOP president that century—but that he clearly overestimated the memory of the American people.

When in my career (latter part of it) I had the task of writing for senior executives in the department. They would hand me a letter from some big-shot or an invitation to some sort of event and ask me to analyze the request, prepare a reply or some 'speaking notes' or a 'briefing note' and when I handed that to them: I was amazed at how they would read it, hardly question it and sign it!

My point?: I was low on the totem pole but they relied on me to brief government, and in some cases international agencies based on my own research and integrity. Wow.... who'd have thunk that in some cases I was influencing international affairs? And that, I'm sure is what happens in Washington too...that these political people only half-read what someone (like me) wrote and then start giving orders.

the President, who was exhibiting deteriorating mental health.

Gosh, that sounds familiar. 😀 sure does

Not read the book but definitely one of my favourite movies

its not womens job