Richard Nixon was impeached for incompetence

It is a myth, but, an extremely well propagated myth, that Richard Nixon was impeached, and forced to resign,  because of the Watergate break-in fiasco.  This is, actually, absolute and total nonsense.  To grasp just how total this nonsense is, all you have to do is realize that the Watergate break-in was reported and condemned in July 1972, and Nixon went on to defeat the Democratic candidate by a 20 point landslide in the popular vote, and win 49 of 50 states in November, 1972. Now, sure, additional details did come in during subsequent investigations, but, actually, everybody knew more or less what had happened, but no one particularly cared.  In fact, it was said that it wasn't the break-in so much that destroyed Nixon, as the subsequent attempts at covering it up.   But, actually, that wasn't really the problem either, at all. You see, in 1972, Nixon seemed to be doing a very good job.  The stock market was doing well, the economy was doing well, Nixon had pulled American troops out of Vietnam, and South Vietnam seemed to be holding up pretty well.  Nixon appeared to have achieved that long sought for American dream of "peace with honor", to bring the long nightmare of Vietnam to an end.   So, Nixon won the elections overwhelmingly, who cared if he had broken into Democratic headquarters, he would have won big anyway, right, what difference did it really make? Now let's fast forward two years.  Now, rather suddenly, everything is falling apart.  South Vietnam is being overwhelmed by North Vietnamese troops, and is clearly going to fall soon.  Israel has only won with great difficulty a hard fought war against the Arab world, one it would probably have lost without massive American aid authorized by Richard Nixon.  In direct retaliation, an Arab oil embargo has been declared, that has totally trashed the entire US economy.  Inflation is at 11%, the nation is deep in recession, the stock market has lost much of its value.   Now, suddenly, Watergate looms as the greatest and most significant crime in world history!  Hysterical, right? What we really see with Watergate, is how law is used to rationalize the broader agendas of society as a whole, right or wrong.  You see, the US Constitution requires "high crimes and misdemeanors" to justify removing the President of the United States.  Now, it was clearly seen as absolutely essential to remove Nixon, because he was making such a total mess of everything, so, by God, some high crimes and misdemeanors had to be manufactured! Now, to be sure, the Watergate break-in was certainly an illustration of Nixon's paranoia, obsessiveness, and incompetence, but, it was only a very small part of a much bigger picture, and it was that much bigger picture that was the real problem, not Watergate. #nixon #richardnixon #watergate #impeachment #nixonresignation #usconsitution #republicans #democrats #uselections #uscongress #history #ushistory #usconstitution #law #uslaw #philosophyoflaw #philosophyofhistory #revisionism #revisionisthistory #historicalrevisionism #socialanthropology #sociology #moralphilosophy #vietnam #vietnamwar #israel #yomkippurwar #araboilembargo #opec #useconomy #economics #uspresidents