Nothing Shocks Anymore.It’s the fiftieth anniversary of the American Watergate scandal. The long unfolding media story dominated Canadian TV and eventually led to USA President Nixon resigning his office. In Canadian culture, often a new political scandal has the moniker “gate” attached to it, all because of a late-night break-in at the Watergate Hotel complex in Washington DC on June 17, 1972..The story has two parts. First, the Republican and Democratic partisans were doing dirty tricks on each other for political advantage, just like they had always done for years back and forth. However, this time the electronic bugging of the Democratic Campaign Headquarters and the late-night break-in searching for materials was foiled, and five Republican operatives were arrested..The second part of the story was the huge embarrassment of being caught, and the diversions, denials, and web of lies that were spun to try and make the scandal go away. It was the cover-up that became the most damaging part of the story. President Nixon himself was aware of the political dirty tricks team although not involved with details. Unfortunately, Nixon’s huge ego caused him to dig himself into a political hole through his obstruction of justice behaviours. Investigations revealed multiple abuses of power by the Nixon administration. A vote for Impeachment was eminent, but Nixon decided to resign in disgrace on August 9, 1974, and have Vice-President Ford take over..The ugly side of American democracy had been exposed like never before on international TV, and there were some later attempts to clean things up, from formerly how "off-book maneuvers” had always been done. The original offenses only became a backdrop to the “cover-up”, which became the main media theme. Sixty-nine officials were eventually indicted and forty-eight people were convicted on varied charges, and great careers were ended. Many books and movies were made. The two-year-long political drama was the beginning of modern scandal news and "gotcha journalism”..It reminds of Trudeau’s many scandals, and the denials and cover-ups run by the Prime Minister's Office. Nixon’s private intrigues were a culture shock at the time. Today’s Canada takes political deceit as part of the job. In the new era of instant rumour in social media, truth and fiction are often indistinguishable. Trudeau the actor was re-elected, and eventually, his “cause” was so important that the NDP became his enabler. .It seems Justin Trudeau is always having to apologize for something. He apologized for wearing brownface makeup on several occasions. SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. favour scandal, conflict of interest on the Aga Khan, donned elaborate colored costumes during India trip embarrassing Canada, Jaspal Atwal convicted attempted murderer invited to a reception for Trudeau in New Delhi, Parliamentary Elbow-Gate, Groping allegations by females, Jody Wilson-Raybould mess, WE Charity scandal, Wei Wei a Toronto real estate developer scandal, the Winnipeg Biolab Cover-Up concerning Chinese espionage, vetting Judicial appointments based on a Liberal Party Membership database, and on and on..Nothing shocks anymore. Failures, which formerly would have been decisive in a politician’s career, are cynically accepted by the public. Trudeau was found to have improperly meddled in a criminal case, a scandal that cost two of his cabinet ministers their jobs, was brushed off by the public..There needs to be real consequences for offenses, not just catch and release. As long as there is no substantive deterrence for politicians behaving unethically, the apologies will just keep coming. What have we learned in fifty years about our politicians?
