Watergate Today
03 March 2012
The Watergate scandal, to me, was about honesty, and knowing when to cut your losses. In one sense it is understandable why Nixon would want to gather information on his competetors, but he should have proceeded in a much more ethical manner. When the men got caught, his big mistake was trying to cover it up. Honesty is always the best way to go, which I believe should still empower people in politics today. The arena of politics is a different reality then the one we all live in on a day to day basis. Politicians are looking to be both powerful and popular and in order to do that you have to decide to be okay with not always following your word and doing things in a not always totally ethical manner. However, I believe there is a fine line even in the world of politics that shouldn’t be crossed. I fully understand Nixon’s want to create the “Plumbers” security group to watch leaks from the White House, and those men may have had to do illegal things to accomplish that, but that was reactive behavior (Davidson & Lytle, 2010, p 396). Proactive behavior, like having the men break into the hotel to plant a wire, is much more deceitful because you had to come up with the plan yourself rather then reacting to someone else’s behavior (Davidson & Lytle, 2010, p 396).
I believe that Watergate still has an impact in the political field, however I feel that its impact on pop culture is waning. The story or legacy of Watergate is one that all politicians should know. It proves that just because you are the President, it does not make you invincible to the rest of the world. I believe that initially Nixon and the people working for him thought that it did not matter if they got caught. Those working for them thought this because they felt that if they got caught, Nixon would get them out of it, and Nixon felt that if he got caught, he was the President and did not have to abide by the same rules as everyone else. This lesson alone is an
The Watergate scandal, to me, was about honesty, and knowing when to cut your losses. In one sense it is understandable why Nixon would want to gather information on his competetors, but he should have proceeded in a much more ethical manner. When the men got caught, his big mistake was trying to cover it up. Honesty is always the best way to go, which I believe should still empower people in politics today. The arena of politics is a different reality then the one we all live in on a day to day basis. Politicians are looking to be both powerful and popular and in order to do that you have to decide to be okay with not always following your word and doing things in a not always totally ethical manner. However, I believe there is a fine line even in the world of politics that shouldn’t be crossed. I fully understand Nixon’s want to create the “Plumbers” security group to watch leaks from the White House, and those men may have had to do illegal things to accomplish that, but that was reactive behavior (Davidson & Lytle, 2010, p 396). Proactive behavior, like having the men break into the hotel to plant a wire, is much more deceitful because you had to come up with the plan yourself rather then reacting to someone else’s behavior (Davidson & Lytle, 2010, p 396).
I believe that Watergate still has an impact in the political field, however I feel that its impact on pop culture is waning. The story or legacy of Watergate is one that all politicians should know. It proves that just because you are the President, it does not make you invincible to the rest of the world. I believe that initially Nixon and the people working for him thought that it did not matter if they got caught. Those working for them thought this because they felt that if they got caught, Nixon would get them out of it, and Nixon felt that if he got caught, he was the President and did not have to abide by the same rules as everyone else. This lesson alone is an
Cited: Davidson, J. & Lytle, M. (2010). After the fact: The art of historical detection, volume II 6th edition.:New York, NY: McGraw Hill