This article by Erik Root about Nixon, Marini, and the Russia hoax is packed. I was just a kid during the Watergate episode in the 1970s, and I haven’t yet read John Marini’s new book, Unmasking the Administrative State. The Russia hoax was clearly a hoax from the start — which makes me wonder about the intelligence of those who believed it or pushed it thinking others would.
Here are just a few excerpts from Root’s article — note the bad news — some Republicans never learn, and the good news — the news media is no longer a monolith:
In a recent essay reflecting on John Marini’s excellent new book, Unmasking the Administrative State, Ken Masugi wrote that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report amounted to a rerun from the Nixon era. It is certainly a repeat performance of sorts, but it looks like it will not conclude in the same satisfying way for the Left. Now, the tables are being turned on them. For the first time since the 1970s, we have a president and an attorney general, William Barr, who will not cave to injustice.
Barr has made clear he will look at spying regardless of party affiliation. The Democrats naturally are howling at the prospect, for it well may wrap up their grand ruse that is a political scandal bigger than anything Nixon could ever have imagined.
. . .The media of the 1970s was a monolith. There was no other entity to challenge its narrative. There was no competition as presently exists today with multiple news outlets.
. . .
The lazy and unintelligent journalist class in America—including the Washington Post’s famed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—never pursued the motives of those making allegations against Nixon, nor did they put Watergate into any context. They did not have to because there was no media outlet that might contradict or test the veracity of their claims. The “truth” was dispensed without questioning from the public or competing media outlets which, let’s face it, were all basically the same.. . .
It is probably anathema to utter such words, but “Conservative, Inc.” failed us all as far back as Watergate. The only major conservative organ at the time, National Review, imprudently argued that Nixon should resign for the good of the country, whatever that means. The failure to understand the political stakes amounted to capitulation.
This was not lost on Nixon, who said himself that liberals want to win, while conservatives have no problem with losing.
Read more: American Greatness
Image credit: www.amgreatness.com.
