--Editorial
The people out on the brink with Nixon
In a very short time, this country will
be faced with a decision of monumental
importance: the fate of Richard M. Nixon
as President of the United States. Along
with Nixon the man, his philosophy of
government will also be weighed in the
balance of that decision.
Short of his resignation, Nixon most
definitely will be facing a vote to impeach
in the House of Representatives by late
spring. At the moment, it is almost in
conceivable that the House Judiciary
Committee will report to their colleagues
anything less than a demand for im
peachment. In the House, impeachment
requires only a simple majority. If Nixon’s
track record for obfuscating the facts
continues, it is almost impossible to see
how House fence-sitters like our own Rep.
John Dellenback can vote with the
President.
Once the impeachment proceeding
moves to the Senate, the battle will be
joined in force. Every trick in the bag,
every innuendo and persuasion known to
politics will be thrown at the Senators as
they decide the crucial question. The
general public, too, will be the subject of
an intense information bombardment
from two different sources. One message
will say: Save our President, he does not
deserve to be impeached. The other will
say: Get rid of the man, he’s failed the
country.
The result will be mental civil war for
the nation.
This civil war may very well be cir
cumvented by Nixon’s early retirement
from public life, but it would be an easy
answer for a tired nation. Of late, elements
in Congress which are loyal to Nixon have
declined by and large to continue their
sometimes harsh criticism of him. At least
one major figure, Sen. Barry Goldwater,
has switched to a defensive posture,
urging that Congress impeach the
President or drop the subject. Until
recently, Goldwater was seen as leading a
group of loyalist Republicans to the White
House to urge Nixon to resign. The chance
now of such a scenario happening before
actual impeachment by the House is about
zero. After impeachment, and with the
harrowing weeks of a Senate trial looming
ahead, Nixon could very well call it quits
and get out with as much grace as he can.
But if he does resign in the face of
possible conviction, then he will almost
assuredly receive the same cold treatment
the nation has meted out to former Vice
President Spiro Agnew. And like Agnew,
national public opinion will hold him guilty
of many of the scandal charges. Yet,
others will believe him innocent, hounded
out of office by the media, leftists and
possibly some vague communist con
spiracy. But the historians will get it right,
V.
and the name of Nixon will be a name of
sorrow and shame for the children of
America. The best a resigned President
can expect is that some future historian a
hundred years from now will write a
sympathetic account of his fate.
Richard Nixon is no quitter. The man
believes in himself, and as events over the
past year have proved, so do many of his
assistants. Nixon should hold on to his job
at least until the Senate trial opens. His
one clear hope—that friends and allies will
stand by him no matter what—is tenuous.
The entire House of Representatives and
one-third of the Senate will be up for re
election in the fall. Although the President
seems strong in the South and some of his
supporters from other areas hold safe
seats, the majority will face the judgment
of their constituents. Nixon needs a
minimum of 34 Senators on his side or he
will be through. If a Senator votes the
wrong way, he will be through with the
voters.
How do the people vote? The opinion
polls tell us that a hefty majority feel
Nixon to be guilty of at least one of the
charges. Almost in the same breath,
however, a part of that majority does not
feel Nixon should be found guilty. These
people say that they are afraid im
peachment will tear the country apart.
The current breakdown on the im
peachment issue is about even, but the
trend over the past few months has seen a
steady rise in anti-Nixon sentiment. Nixon
has tried to stem the tide of opinion against
him and he has failed. Feelings against
him can only rise in the months ahead, and
every failing of the Administration on
inflation, prices, shortages and the like
will be Nixon’s failings.
Once proceedings in the Senate begin
and the heat is on, many people of
moderate persuasion will be in anguish
over what course to follow. Conviction by
the Senate may be a painting black of
Richard Nixon, but acquittal can just as
easily be interpreted as a clean white
sheet. Like his favorite sport of football,
Nixon will be going into the game knowing
that be can either win or lose—there is
nothing else. And the game stats—a
million history books in the hands of school
kids—will tell the whole story to future
generations. Nixon is enough of a realist to
realize that his chances even now are not
good, but he knows also that the game isn’t
over until the last play has run.
What can save him is the hard core of
his support, the Silent Majority of
yesterday, who remain so amazingly silent
today. But soon the heat will be on and
sides will have to be taken. If the question
at hand concerned the great issue of
ideology, of conservatism versus
liberalism or radicalism, then perhaps
Nixon could count on the oil people and the
bankers, the construction workers and the
farmers, to support him en masse.
Perhaps he could find comfort in the
millions of people living simple lives in ten
thousand small towns around the country.
He could say to them, “Have I ever lied to
you, have I ever misled or mistreated
you?” But Nixon cannot ask his people
those questions today, and if he did, he
would surely receive the answers with
tears in his eyes. His people—gas station
owners in Oregon and corporate
executives in New York—don’t want to
give answers to the President. Earlier,
they were not anxious to hear of Watergate
and the other scandals, now they dread the
final confrontation. They fear the
President’s trial would be their trial, his
indictment to be their indictment. They
would much prefer a safe and conservative
Jerry Ford in the Presidency. Why link
oneself with a sinking ship? Why continue
to argue in the fantasy land of Nixonian
principle?
The best that can bo gotten from the
President’s supporters is the call for a
quick vote on impeachment in the hope
that House members will feel rushed and
unsure. Certainly such a maneuver, if
done soon enough, might be successful.
But the wheels of justice grind slowly, the
cliche says, and any effort to speed up the
proceedings will be matched by demands
for a thorough job.
One all-purpose defense advanced by
Nixon supporters is the allegation that
there is a small body of professional hafers
out to get the President. This is true. In the
almost thirty years of public life that
Nixon has enjoyed, he has managed to
acquire a growing army of haters, the kind
of people who will tell you about Jerry
Vorhees and Helen Gahagan Douglas. But
the present conflict has not come about
because of these people. It has come in
stead from a solid cross section of
American thought and culture, from the
editorial offices of every political per
suasion, from the multi-colored spectrum
of the Democratic party, from union
leaders and corporate executives alike.
The conflict exists simply because the
truth has been denied, and where the truth
is known, the confession and contrition
lacking.
If Nixon would present an honest
statement of his involvement, one that
would make decent sense, then people
could very well embrace him again. But
these statements have not been for
thcoming and the people are confused.
The brink of decision is fast ap
proaching for the people and Congress.
And out on that brink the buck cannot be
passed—the fate of Richard Nixon must
finally be made.
Letter
Criminal Nixon
If anyone has not yet written to
Congressman Dellenback to urge the
immediate impeachment of President
Nixon I would strongly encourage them to
do so immediately.
Again, just as it was with the many End
the-War amendments, it is clear that
Congress does not have the moral courage
to do what is right. Only if hundreds of
Congressional members are reached by
millions of concerned citizens and told that
Nixon must be impeached or that they will
be defeated at the polls this November,
will Nixon be expelled from office.
IT IS UNFORTUNATE that moves to
impeach Nixon have not received more
support from our governmental
representatives. However, 'this must not
stop honest citizens from demanding that
criminal Nixon be brought to justice.
John T. Stewart
Senior, Political Science