The 30th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation speech crept up on us this year. There’s none of the usual hoopla surrounding big, politically important anniversaries.
But for those of a certain generation–now of the age when AARP starts sending unsolicited membership offers–the Nixon years and his dramatic speech on Aug. 8, 1974, remain a defining political moment. The images are vivid, even three decades later: Nixon’s emotional farewell to his staff, the big wave before boarding the helicopter.
Many Americans think there have been scandals just as bad since Watergate. But there’s no doubt that the most pernicious fallout from the Nixon years–measured by public distrust of government–remains pervasive.
In the early 1960s, before the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, national surveys found that the vast majority of Americans–seven in 10–expressed trust in the federal government. That figure peaked at 76 percent in 1964. As Watergate unfolded, public trust in government plunged well below 50 percent and stayed there for decades.
Only in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks did a solid majority of Americans again say that they trusted the government to “do what is right,” a 2001 Washington Post poll found. That’s sliding again.
This country will never return to the sunny innocence of the early 1960s. The skepticism, if not outright scorn, of government is now deeply ingrained. That is the main legacy of Richard Nixon and Watergate. It’s nothing to celebrate. But it is worth pondering, if only to remind those in government that they must continue to earn America’s trust–and be worthy of it.
