My first taste of presidential politics came during the Watergate scandal back in 1973-74. The events playing out in Washington during that time provided my 6th and 7th grade social studies lessons with vivid, real-time examples of how our system of government works. It wasn't just a learning experience for school kids though, it seemed all of America was paying attention.

(Looking back on it now, I wonder how much of this attention was due to our citizenry being essentially a captive audience. Those were, after all, the days before cable television, video games and home computers. If the networks - all three of them - were covering the Watergate hearings, you either watched that or found something else to do.)

Anyway, Watergate had it all; political espionage, illegal wiretaps, subpoenas, resignations, firings, indictments and convictions involving everyone from third-rate burglars to administration Cabinet members and White House personnel. All playing out around a president who felt he was above the law, citing executive privilege to cover his crimes. But the Supreme Court ruled against Nixon and he was forced to resign or be removed from office. It was, quite simply, our constitutional system of checks and balances between the three branches of government in action.

Then into the oval office stepped Gerald R. Ford to finish out Nixon's second term. Citing a need to put an end to the divisive national debate for the greater good, he granted Nixon an unconditional pardon. So my first taste of presidential politics was a bitter one. At 12 years old, I learned that the bad guys don't always go to jail.

The four years of Jimmy Carter's term as president pretty much coincided with my four years of high school. I hit puberty, discovered girls and sex and cars and beer and sex and marijuana and rock 'n' roll... and sex. In short, I was too busy to pay much attention to politics other than to participate in the national pastime of ridiculing Carter for his ineffectual handling of the Iranian hostage crisis. I turned 18 and cast my first vote for an affable actor from California.

While I was dropping in and out of college, Ronald Reagan and his administration, in direct violation of US law, sold arms to our sworn enemy, Iran, purportedly to gain Iran's help in securing the release of US hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon. They then - also in direct violation of US law - used the profits from these arms sales to help finance the Nicaraguan rebel group known as the Contras in their attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicaragua. The CIA and the State Department also used money from drug trafficking to fund the Contras. The Contras used this funding to carry out a campaign of kidnapping, torture, rape and murder of innocent civilians including nuns, priests and human rights workers.

Reagan appointed a commission to investigate these crimes and then, testifying before this commission, surprisingly couldn't remember much of anything about anything. Huge numbers of documents were destroyed to keep Congress from seeing them and Congressional hearings were effectively stonewalled. The investigations were still ongoing when Reagan left office, replaced by his vice-president George H. W. Bush.

The presidency of Bush the elder, smarter is memorable more for what he didn't do than what he did. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the US-led international coalition quickly and soundly defeated the Iraqi military, sending them back to Iraq, Bush decided not to pursue them into Iraq, reasoning that our military could find itself stuck in a quagmire much like Vietnam. And (of course) he pardoned the key players in the Iran-Contra scandal on his way out of office after having been defeated in his re-election bid by the Bill Clinton. No one ever went to jail for Iran-Contra.

Under the Clenis, the US enjoyed 8 years of relative peace and prosperity, large economic gains, expansion of world-wide free trade and reduction of welfare entitlements at home and a strong international reputation. I've heard lefties say he was the best Republican president in modern history. A special prosecutor spent 700 million tax dollars investigating an Arkansas land deal in which the Clenis lost money, and ultimately Congress impeached him for lying about a blow job. At the height of the impeachment proceedings, his approval rating was 73% - higher than Ronald Reagan's ever was. George W. Bush was elected to succeed him on a ticket of bringing integrity back to the White House.

Which brings me to dubya. It's like we've culled all the worst aspects (and people) from the Nixon and Reagan administrations and simultaneously removed the last remnants of Congressional oversight or checks and balances. This administration has normalized and legalized warrant-less wiretapping, kidnapping, torture, and foreign invasion all in the name of national security and protecting Amurka from an enemy that the preznit defines. Any attempts at oversight are met with a polite "fuck you" as administration personnel routinely go before Congress and refuse to answer questions or just tell one lie after another, then lie about having lied. All with no consequences whatsoever. I find it astounding that only one individual - Scooter Libby - from this administration has actually been charged with a crime and his sentence was commuted before he ever got near a jail. They have perfected the cover-up.

Based on the cluster-fuck they've created in Iraq, I feel confident that this particular pack of thieves will be out of power for at least one presidential term, but looking back over what I have written here, I can't help but see a pattern. I fully expect to see a lot of the same names and faces popping up in some future Republican administration, one that's even more authoritarian, more secretive, and more dangerous to democracy. Our government is moving inexorably away from our constitution.