Worse Than Watergate
All students are familiar with the creed of the X-files, a popular recent science fiction television show that instructed its viewers, young and old, to 'trust no one.' At the time this motto of secrecy and distrust, particular distrust of government policy and institutions was much criticized, as fostering cynicism in the hearts of the young about the potential of political involvement to create change in an open society. How is it possible to encourage students to question and to engage in governmental debate, when policy so vitally affects their lives yet when many feel ostracized by a government of secrecy and shame? In an era where every vote counts, and when a teacher is confronted with a classroom of potential voters, he or she is constantly faced with the civic as well as educationally responsible challenge of making politics accessible and interesting to students in an unbiased way.
One way to do this is to assign books about the current political moment in politics that relate to the past. John Dean's book about the current Bush administration is such a work. It encourages its readers to question, challenge, think and explore like a good teacher, about an administration whose 'No Child Left Behind' policy has left, alas, many children behind in its wake. (Csmonitor, 2003) It relates current administration policy to policies and American history of the recent past, a past that student's parents will be able to remember and share with them in a vitally engaging manner.
Although the title Worse than Watergate may seem somewhat self-serving, for the author, given that the author of the text is one of the leading implicated figures in that national scandal, it raises important points about corruption in the presidency of George W. Bush that are altruistic as well as comparative to the Nixon administration. Regardless of one's political position about Nixon, it makes the fashioning and interpretation of history an issue of the contemporary present, not the long past.
When observing the current administration, John Dean says that he sees...
Of course, Dean knows of what he speaks, when he cites Nixon era corruption and paranoia as a dangerous and pervasive force in American government. Once a trusted former White House counsel within the Republican Nixon administration, John W. Dean III was charged with obstruction of justice and spent four months in prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up, a reduced sentence given his testimony for the infamous commission investigating the corruption and scandal of the Nixon regime. ("James Dean," The Washington Post, 2003)
In making a parallel between the leadership styles of Nixon and Bush, the author suggests a moral lesson for young students of government everywhere, that not knowing about the true operations of one's legislators and the executive branch of the United States results in a government that represents no one, certainly not the American citizens as a body -- instead, a government by fiat is generated through a clandestine climate, that only represents itself. In his preface, Dean states, "George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney created the most secretive presidency of my lifetime. Their secrecy is far worse than during Watergate," era, and thus and "it bodes even more serious consequences." According to Dean, their secrecy is extreme -- not merely unjustified and excessive but obsessive. It has created a White House that hides its president's weaknesses as well as its vice president's strengths." (Dean, 2004)
Dean's disparaging references to Cheney's disproportionate share of executive power, in comparison to vice presidents of the past, highlights important civic issues, questions of what is the appropriate role of the president's second-in-command and replacement. Thus, its issues are not simply 'about Bush' but about what Americans want their executive branch to look like, and how Americans wish power to be distributed within the White House.
Before one assesses the book's final impact upon the teaching of educators, one must examine its central thesis for all citizens. John Dean…
