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Blogpost 11 (11/3)

In Zinn’s chapter “The Seventies: Under Control?” in the period of 1970s, the system did not “hold loyalty to the public” sparking a series of events like the Watergate scandal and anti-war protests. We see that at the beginning of the decade people were not trusting the government as it was violent against its own people. Government officials wanted to reveal and speak up about Nixon’s fraud and crimes as people were all fed up with the situation and wanted Nixon to resign and as soon as he did and Ford took over, people thought he would provide more strength to the American democracy and improve the government. However, that did not happen; the Mayaguez affair happened where Ford acted without the approval of Congress.

 

I think this year in a certain aspect is similar to that specific period of time. Nixon has been accused of committing crimes and abusing his position as a president. Similarly, the (current) President Trump has been accused of lies such as providing advances to black Americans, meeting with Iran, Covid 19 pandemic, voting by mail, and much more. I see that people during that time have experienced a very similar feeling of distrust against the American government as some do right now. 

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2 Comments

  1. Samuel Hussey Samuel Hussey

    I liked your connection to the modern political scene. As we know, history repeats itself and we can see similar actions by the government and reactions from the public causing chaos today. The seventies were truly a turbulent time in our nation where the Cold War and domestic scandals lowered morale and created cleavages in our country.

  2. Jeffrey Sprung Jeffrey Sprung

    I completely agree that American people’s lack of trust in our government in the 1970s is similar to our country’s current distrust with our government. I feel that unfortunately the level of distrust with our government has greatly increased since the 1970s.

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