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Watergate was under Nixon, not Johnson or Kennedy -- I was merely pointing out that the side effect of Watergate was that presidents no longer recorded their co

Watergate was under Nixon, not Johnson or Kennedy -- I was merely pointing out that the side effect of Watergate was that presidents no longer recorded their conversations. This prevents us, for the sake of determining what is "normal", from having a record of what was actually being said by the president and his advisors while these terrible decisions were being made. Watergate was a criminal act. The acts of Kennedy and Johnson were not criminal, just irresponsible. In particular, cronyism and requiring personal loyalty are not "not normal" as alleged, and the "not normal" argument in general wears a bit thin and lacks any historical perspective.

WorldMaker 9y ago
The article here points out that yes, the "normal" in US politics has since about the founding of the country been that the only fealty oath used by the federal government was one to the Constitution and the People. Cronyism and personal loyalty were not criminal, but were considered unethical and when such things come to light, it was the job of a free press and other parts of the government to fix them and make things better. It was never openly "normal" in any school of American government history to accept cronyism or personal loyalty. Sure it happened, but the goal was to reduce and/or eliminate it; that was the presumed "norm".