sense of liberation, of deliverance… the government and the people could soon move past Watergate to a better time’. 23 With these views in mind, Watergate’s conclusion appeared initially to have soothed the rage and mistrust that came to characterise the presidency described above. Unfortunately, whatever successes that may have been achieved in suturing the wounds inflicted by those previous acts, the ‘full, free and absolute pardon’ 24 of Nixon by President Gerald Ford saw those same scars reopened. Initial suspicion towards the government had been replaced by optimism following Nixon’s resignation, but many scholars argue that his pardon only illuminated deeper problems. For one, Patterson cites Ford’s plummeting approval ratings to show public reactions of surprise and outrage: A Gallup poll reveals that a 71 percent approval rating was slashed by 16 points overnight and continued to decline until hitting a low of 50 percent by the end of September. 25 Hoff writes that at the heart of the public’s outrage was the notion that Watergate, and more pertinently Ford’s pardoning of Nixon, seemed to imply that ‘our highest officials of government are above the law and that there is no single standard of justice’. 26 To further compound this argument and counter the previous view on how political institutions held fast during the Watergate era, Kim McQuaid writes: ‘[the American political infrastructure] worked not in the sense of accomplishing greatness but, rather, in the sense of avoiding catastrophe’. 27 However, it could be argued that not all optimism was extinguished. One should be aware that Ford did not make his decision to bestow the pardon without a lot of soul searching, and his reasoning was finally secured by the belief that ‘I think it’s right for the country, and because it feels right in my heart’. 28 This provides a refreshing change to the introverted paranoia of his predecessor, and perhaps gives weight to Rudalevige’s view that the old ways were indeed in remission. Furthermore, Hoff posits the theory that the American people used Nixon as a target upon which to project their own insecurities and faults, and that America would ‘continue to lament rather than learn from Watergate and the Age of Nixon’. 29 Ultimately, the ignominious end of the Watergate scandal had provided Americans with an initial sense of peace toward the nature of their government and hope for the future of democracy. Whilst I respect the view that Ford’s decision was made with the best of intentions of the nation at heart, as opposed to saving his own skin, I concur with both Hoff and McQuaid that Ford’s pardon was flagrant evidence that a double standard of justice was at work, much to the American people’s chagrin.
23 Cannon, p. 6. 24 Cannon, p. 247. 25 Patterson, p. 5. 26 Hoff, p. 330. 27 Kim McQuaid, The Anxious Years (Basic Books Inc., 1989), p. 307. 28 Cannon, p. 245. 29 Hoff, p. 346.
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