On this Independence Day, should The Times editorial board repeat the confidence and swagger expressed by its predecessor 50 years ago?
As our nation celebrated its 200th birthday on July 4, 1976, Times opinion purveyors noted that the U.S. had recently experienced a spate of tribulations. The last American combat troops left Vietnam just three years previously. A year after that, President Richard Nixon helicoptered into early retirement, disgraced by scandal.
Nonetheless, this page declared, the republic endured.
“Watergate and Vietnam could scarcely prove to be the downfall of a system that survived the Civil War and such other times of testing as the financial panics and shocking land scandals of the late 19th century, the Depression of the 1930s, Pearl Harbor and the burning of inner cities in more recent years,” wrote the editorialists.
“The system’s resilience was really established when it survived periods of mediocrity and even incompetence in the White House or on Capitol Hill.”
Did the readers of The Times in 1976 ever think that 50 years later, a sitting vice president of the United States would compare himself favorably to Nixon?
“If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy,” Vice President JD Vance told an audience at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum on June 25.
“And by the way, if you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it’s not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration.”
The audience applauded and Vance added: “At a personal level, you know, OK, young senator, vice president, writes some best-selling books, is hated by the media — it kind of sounds like JD Vance. So, you know, I’ve always liked Richard Nixon.”
Nixon ordered the CIA to stop an FBI investigation of the Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972. His “Plumbers” tried to discredit perceived political enemies. He illegally ordered IRS audits of opponents and collected illegal campaign contributions. By the time of his downfall, Republican lawmakers were ready to remove him from office.
The abuses of the Trump administration are too numerous to list, but here’s one that ought to stand out: On May 19, 2026, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued an order granting immunity to President Donald Trump, his family, their businesses and an undefined affiliates from tax audits and tax liability. It also prevents the government from investigating any potentially unlawful nontax conduct.
“It just completely reinforces the notion that the rules don’t apply to the rich and the powerful,” a former senior Justice Department tax official told The Wall Street Journal.
Is it any wonder that a recent Pew Research Center poll revealed 69% of adults in America say they are dissatisfied with the way democracy is working?
In 1976, The Times ended its bicentennial editorial with these words: “Two hundred years of up-and-down American history — the mistakes as well as the triumphs — have repeatedly demonstrated the strength of the foundation the Founding Fathers built.”
As flags are hung, families gather and fireworks brighten the night sky this July 4, may our nation prove once again resilient, and may government of the people, by the people, and for the people overcome the many obstacles that forever lie in its path.
