The Throat has spoken: It was Meee

I was at that age in my teens when all teens are made of cellophane, brinking on adulthood, when Watergate broke. I sat through all those hearings, I cried. I was angry. But I wasn't angry at President Richard Nixon.

I had had a hard time coming to terms with WHY, in light of everything going on in the world, the press was obsessed with whether or not President Nixon "lied". President Nixon had opened the door to China! He had been negotiating getting our POWs home. He was actively doing positive stuff in re Vietnam. To me, these were huge, important matters.

And the liberals were hysterical over "why" Clinton's cased hinged on a blowjob. It didn't hinge on a bj, idiotes! It was over whether or not he lied. He lied. It got dealt with. You'd think the Dems would be saying: Ah, so it goes...

Ben Stein, today in his column "Deep Throat and Genocide" -- thus far, I find my closest voice:

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW's, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel's life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?

But he goes even further, and it makes me think long and hard:

So, this is the great boast of the enemies of Richard Nixon, including Mark Felt: they made the conditions necessary for the Cambodian genocide. If there is such a thing as kharma, if there is such a thing as justice in this life of the next, Mark Felt has bought himself the worst future of any man on this earth. And Bob Woodward is right behind him, with Ben Bradlee bringing up the rear. Out of their smug arrogance and contempt, they hatched the worst nightmare imaginable: genocide. I hope they are happy now -- because their future looks pretty bleak to me.

Watergate tore up this country. I saw it all around me. And what happened next? Democrats proposed themselves as the new savior. The "be honest" movement began in earnest, in my lovely locale of hottubs and peacock feathers, tearing apart families in the name of "total honesty", of "openness", of "finding one's self". The whole "coming out of the closet" movement was slamming the papers hard. Children being encouraged to tell their parents "honestly" what they thought of their parents.

Right. All of it prelude to the more modern "truth to power", no?

However, it works out, I still think the so-called "Deep Throat" is a composite. I think the other snakes are being hidden through this one "coming out" of a 91-year old man who had once sworn an oath to his country, but broke that oath and because, possibly, he'd been passed over in promotions. And he wanted payback.

As I say, I was at a tender age when all this broke in the early 1970s. An age when the young are questioning what they wish to do in life. Are there such things as morals? Do morals count? Who really is our country. Who really are the players. Who can I trust?

I was able to let it all go into the trust and faith barrel when I attended a Halloween party in Petaluma, California in that time span. It was a public party. I went with friends. This guy wearing a Nixon mask kept coming on to me. Everyone at the party had been poking fun at the Nixon guy. He dealt with it very well. I figured this guy to maybe have extra sensory powers knowing me to maybe be the only one at this huge event who didn't hate Richard Nixon, and who thought the rest of the world had gone nuts. And that he was taunting me.

Imagine my joy when at the end of the evening, when he removed the mask, he turned out to be the best looking guy at this event. And he was a gentleman. And very polite and educated.

I took it as a sign. And it eased my heart. Gave me that peace I needed to wade through the utter and unmitigated social BS that saturated the culture of the US after Watergate.