Vice Precedent

Why prosecuting ex-presidents should be on the table

A quick note to you loyal Systematic Organization followers: I wrote a piece for Foreign Policy laying out my argument that pardoning Nixon was a mistake. Nixon’s post-pardon rehabilitation, instead of investigation and punishment, set a precedent that Trump could easily follow.

A quick preview:

Consider how the system dealt with Nixon.

Time has so effaced the details of Nixon’s malfeasance that he has regained a patina of statesmanship. Thus, Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, could recently tweet a favorable comparison between Nixon and Trump, arguing that that “Nixon, for all his flaws, was a conservative who abided by norms.”

Haass’s viral tweet reflects an irony that, in death, Nixon has finally been accepted by the sort of institution whose rejections kindled in him a lifelong resentment of the Eastern Establishment he tried to join. In doing so, it reflects a general amnesia about why Watergate was so bad that illustrates how far elite culture will go to forgive the crimes of the powerful.

Please read the whole thing.