When Truth Still Mattered: What Watergate Should Remind Us About Today’s Cowardice

Alan Marley • July 8, 2025

How Watergate Proved the System Can Still Work — If We Let It

If there’s one lesson Watergate should have seared into our political DNA, it’s this: our system can work — but only when the people inside it actually do their jobs. Back then, the Fourth Estate, Congress, the courts, and the special prosecutors all rose to the moment. They fought, subpoenaed, leaked, testified, and demanded evidence until the truth spilled out — no matter how high it reached or which party it embarrassed.


Yes, politics in the 1970s was just as “sausagy” and transactional as it is today. But there was still a line: when the evidence was clear, even loyal party men like Barry Goldwater told Nixon to his face that the game was over. And they meant it.


Today? We watch the same machinery stall and fail at every turn. The Fourth Estate still loves to brag about “speaking truth to power” — but all too often, the truth they’re speaking is filtered through what sells clicks or fits the narrative they already want. Instead of digging relentlessly for the real paper trail, the real witness, the smoking gun, too many newsrooms settle for rumors and partisan gossip.


Congress, meanwhile, has turned into a circus of made-for-TV hearings and social media highlight reels. It’s about scoring the next viral clip for fundraising emails, not tracing a money trail or forcing a cover-up into the light. We’ve lost the cross-examiners like Sam Ervin and Howard Baker — leaders who asked the hard questions no matter whose side it hurt.


Special prosecutors have become punchlines. Too many investigations run in circles, hinting at bombshells that never land, or tiptoe away when the target is politically inconvenient. The American people get all the noise — and none of the clarity that holds real power to account.


And yet… the Watergate roadmap still works. It could work now — if people inside the system would stop hiding behind polls, consultants, and party bosses. Imagine what it would look like:


- A press that actually digs. Editors backing real investigative reporting, not just partisan gotchas. Stories that follow the documents, the money, the phone calls — and don’t stop because the newsroom’s audience doesn’t want to hear the answer.


 - A Congress that subpoenas fearlessly. Committees that subpoena everyone — even the powerful “untouchables” on their own side. That fight stonewalling in court, all the way to the Supreme Court if needed, just like Sirica did when he ordered the White House tapes released.


- Special prosecutors who see it through. Independent prosecutors with the backbone to follow evidence wherever it leads, not just until the next news cycle shifts. No more “executive privilege” used as a black hole where the truth goes to die.


- Leaders willing to cross the aisle. Senior party members who still care about the Constitution more than their next election — who will tell a President, a cabinet official, or a corporate CEO: It’s time to go. Who will stand up, as Goldwater did, and say, You don’t have the votes. It’s over.


- A public that demands accountability. Ordinary citizens who don’t settle for a headline. Who demand real answers, real documents, and real consequences — even when it’s politically uncomfortable for “their side.”


It’s easy to say that could never happen again. But that’s the same cynicism that lets politicians and power brokers skate away with half-truths and endless spin. Watergate proved that when the press, the prosecutors, and the people in Congress stand firm — when they hold each other’s feet to the fire — no one, not even the President of the United States, is above the truth.


Yes, politics will always be messy. It’s a rough business. But the American experiment only works when our institutions — the Fourth Estate, Congress, the courts — remember what they’re really for. Not grandstanding. Not fundraising. Not protecting the next sacred cow. But exposing what power wants to hide. And then acting on it.


It’s time we remembered what happens when the system works — and what’s at stake if we let cowardice and tribal loyalty keep winning. Our democracy depends on it. And so does the truth.

References

Bernstein, C., & Woodward, B. (1974). All the President’s Men. Simon & Schuster.


Kutler, S. I. (1992). The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon. Alfred A. Knopf.


Small, M. (1999). The Presidency of Richard Nixon. University Press of Kansas.



United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974).

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