The comic book series “Watchmen” endeavored to portray a more “realistic” world of superheroes than other comics. Yes, there was a blue, superpowered individual created through freakish scientific means, and there was a tentacled genetic monster at the climax (it’s more than thirty years old, so screw the whole “spoiler” thing) but otherwise it was about normal people who put on costumes and attempted to do either great good or great evil.
There was one major change in the universe in which “Watchmen” existed that differentiated it from ours, aside from Dr. Manhattan. That was that Richard Nixon was still president.
I remember reading “Watchmen” when it first came out and for some reason I had real trouble swallowing that. All the other stuff about superheroes and villains, about Rorschach and Night Owl and his ship, that I was able to believe because I was a long-time comic fan. I was used to such tropes as the insane superhero and the technologically advanced crusader. But how in the world, I thought, could Nixon still be president? He had indisputably done impeachable things, and if he hadn’t resigned, he’d have been thrown out by the Senate. Instead he was still in office, which should be impossible because a president has two terms, max. Nixon’s presence as chief executive really didn’t make any sense.
And now, here we are, more than three decades later, and we still don’t have giant blue supermen or genetic constructs. But we do have the exact situation that would have assured Nixon a continued presidency.
Because it is becoming inevitably clear that the Senate is going to clear Trump.
Alan Dershowitz, who used to be a respected lawyer, actually had the nerve this week to argue that anything the president does, if he believes his reelection is in the public good, is acceptable. He is contending that the punishment does not fit the crime; that indeed, there wasn’t a crime despite the fact that the Government Accountability Office said that there indeed was a crime. That Trump’s withholding of the aid to Ukraine without informing Congress was flat-out illegal. To say nothing of the fact that it’s already established that a crime does not have to have been committed for impeachment to occur. If Trump decided to take a six month vacation to Mar-A-Largo, technically that’s not a crime, but it would certainly be an impeachable offense. Even Dershowitz himself, back in the 90s, stated that a crime did not have to have been committed for a president to be impeached. Which of course is what he said, because it involved Clinton. If Clinton or Obama had done what Trump did, they’d have been out on the street.
Instead the GOP is lining up to stand behind Trump in a way they never did behind Nixon. Back in the 1970s, the Constitution and public opinion mattered. Now the majority of the public wants to hear from witnesses, particularly John Bolton, whose book I have no doubt Trump will find a way to quash. Simon & Schuster had best be prepared for a lengthy lawsuit because that’s how Trump handles everything. They will state the book can’t be published, end statement, and they will be perfectly willing to drag it into the courts where it will take years to resolve. The book won’t see print until after Trump is out of office.
Presuming he ever is. Because remember, the “Watchmen” Nixon had an extended term. And Trump has been repeatedly saying that he should be eligible for a third term. Of course he constantly says he’s joking, but “joking” about things is how Trump normalizes insane things before he tries them out for real. He certainly has supporters who assert that he is “due” a third term because of how the FBI and the Democrats ostensibly wasted his entire first term. Never mind that the Constitution expressly forbids it. It also expressly forbids the sort of profiteering that he is doing, such as charging millions in taxpayer dollars every time he goes off to play golf at a resort that makes money off it. He has been violating the Constitution since pretty much day one of his presidency, and he has the GOP so cowed that none of them dare stand up to him. Hëll, even the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who many believe could unilaterally decide to call witnesses, seems to be too afraid to do anything to take an active role.
If the Senate we have now had existed back in the 1970s, Nixon would never have been forced to resign. They’d have lined up dutifully behind him and supported his presidency and who knows? If he had declared a state of emergency and lobbied for a third term…
Well, if Trump did it, what do you think the GOP would do?
I mean, seriously. Could you imagine these guys, who have absolutely given up on their vow to support the Constitution, actively employing it to prevent him from doing so?
What if—and I’m just spitballing here—what if the Iranians take over an airplane and crash it into the Empire State Building on September 11?
That evening, Trump goes on TV: “After consulting with my attorneys, I am declaring a state of national emergency and suspending the November elections until our war with Iran is concluded.”
Will the GOP override him?
Of course not.
Will the Democrats stand up to him? And what? Get tagged as being unpatriotic in a time of war? Prevent him from going to war just as they failed to do with W?
Of course not.
And we have the “Watchmen” Nixon in office.
It’s just that easy.
And now that I’ve said it, you’re going to sit there and go, “Holy crap, he’s right.”
Because that’s what happens when you erode the Constitution. A dictatorship doesn’t happen all at once. It occurs by degrees, one chipped away piece at a time. Trump declared the emoluments clause as being “phony.” How much effort would it be for him to declare that the 22nd amendment is “old,” “out of date,” “short-sighted?” “Phony?”
None. None whatsoever.
Because that is the situation that we are in right now. The GOP is bending over backwards to accommodate Trump and brush aside the document that was created not only to govern our country, but to save us from exactly the sort of man that Trump is. From urging foreign interference (“Russia, if you’re listening”) to hinging aid on personal services (“I’d like you to do us a favor”) to lining his own pocket with taxpayer and foreign dollars, he is precisely what they were afraid of. He is who the impeachment process was created for.
Unfortunately, we are now seeing the one vulnerability in the system: It depended upon people who would take it seriously to follow it.
That is not the current GOP.
It used to be that the main difference between the Democrats and Republicans was viewing how government should operate. That is no longer the case. Instead the disparity is believing in IF the government should operate. Should it do what it is designed to do, or should it defer entirely to the whims and intentions, the threats and the belligerence, of the chief executive. As far as the GOP is concerned, the answer is clearly the latter.
And who watches them?
We do. And we despise what we’re seeing.
PAD
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I’d love to say that I disagree.
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I’d love to say that I hadn’t thought of any of that.
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Alas, other than the nice connection to Watchmen, I’ve pretty much had this exact thought process myself of late. This is a critically frightening time for the nation.
This whole affair reminds me of another political fight involving a potential tyrannical takeover of a different republic.
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Rome, 133 B.C.
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Tiberius Gracchus was a plebian tribune who supported land reform bills in favor of Rome’s common citizens despite being a member of Rome’s aristocracy. He also engineered the forceable removal of a fellow tribune, often refused to consult with the Senate, bypassed the Senate’s traditional management of the state treasury and appointed several members of his direct family to prominent positions of authority.
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He also desired to be re-elected tribune, at the time a potentially illegal act. Gracchus claimed that once he left office his opponent would prosecute and arrest him. Roman tribunes were limited to one-year terms, considered legally sacrosanct and could not be touched while in office. Gracchus argued that for his own safety, and the good of the people, he must remain tribune. These open claims to power caused many Roman Senators to fear Gracchus was seeking to become a king.
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On election day Gracchus arrived at the Popular Assembly with a few hundred bodyguards. A skirmish broke out between Gracchus’s supporters and protesters and Gracchus himself made some gesture to the crowd. When word of the gesture reached the Senate they believed it was a signal to have the Assembly vote Gracchus a king. The Senators demanded the consul take action to stop Gracchus. The consul refused vowing only to ensure nothing illegal was done.
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Angered at his response, the Pontifex Maximus (chief high priest) declared “Now that the consul has betrayed the state, let every man who wishes to uphold the laws follow me!” and headed for the Assembly. Many of the Senators followed him and armed themselves with makeshift clubs from broken benches smashed in the skirmish. The Senators dispersed the crowd, defeated his bodyguard and beat Gracchus to death.
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This is in no way an avocation toward violence of any kind, especially in politics. It is to highlight that when a person mixes their personal interests with concentrated political power, it can be very costly and difficult to stop.
In the Watchmen comics timeline, the reason Nixon wasn’t harmed by Watergate was because there was no Watergate scandal. The hotel itself existed, hosted DNC people, and was broken into, but as one panel shows, The Comedian had “taken out” a couple of reporters — “Berenstein and what’s-his-name” — presumably at Nixon’s orders.
Nixon was allowed to circumvent the 22nd Amendment because Dr. Manhattan enabled the USA to win the Vietnam War, and Nixon got credit for that.
Did you see the HBO TV series that aired late last year? It was set in the present day (2019) of the continuity of the comics series, not the Snyder movie. And it was reaaally goood.