Measure the impact of the Watergate scandal on the public’s perception of government power.?

Question

Measure the impact of the Watergate scandal on the public’s perception of government power.?

Answer 1

I would say Vietnam represents the pinnacle of the public's disillusionment regarding the expansion of government power. Eventually, the War Powers Act of '73 would revoke the blank check handed to the executive branch, as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution etc. essentially extended Roosevelt's imperial presidency into the realm of foreign policy.

the significance of Watergate is that it serves as an example of government misconduct (like Vietnam), but was obviously motivated by self interest rather than statesmanship

Answer 2

I think Watergate had the opposite effect of what you might think.  Nixon was a really crooked president and the public was truly scandalized by the things he'd done.  But after Watergate, there was one scandal after another until Americans became scandal-tolerant.

There was a little-known Sunday night newsmagazine program called 60 Minutes.  60 Minutes became a household word through their coverage of Watergate.  It made them the most watched TV news program in history.  But after Watergagte, 60 Minutes exposed one scandal after another, two or three a week, and people just got tired of them.

So when Reagan came to power just a few years later, his administration was able to get away with stuff that would have made Nixon blush!  People were no longer outraged that their government was crooked, they were accustomed to it.  And they didn't think they could change it.  Reagan's administration was one big scandal after another, but the media treated them as unimportant!

This laid the stage for the debacle we're seeing in Washington today.  We have more people voting in this election than ever before, which is good, but up to this point people have been happy to just let Congress and the President fight it out between themselves.