So you think it’s been a turbulent political summer, with President Joe Biden’s surprise decision not to run for reelection? Try 50 summers ago, with President Richard Nixon’s equally surprising decision to resign from office.
Concerns for the strength of the democratic process are bound to arise from unique and unprecedented political events. This summer’s scramble to select the Democratic presidential candidate only weeks from the party’s national convention certainly qualifies as such. No sitting president has ever withdrawn his candidacy this late in the election year.
Yet for those worried about democracy’s ability to withstand the uncharted and the unexpected, strong comfort can be drawn from prior political events. Most obvious are the decisions of Presidents Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson not to run for reelection, in 1952 and 1968, respectively. The resulting elections proceeded without impediment or challenge.
But perhaps more comforting are the events surrounding Nixon’s resignation on Aug. 8, 1974, and the peaceful transition of the office that ensued. The succession of Vice President Gerald Ford to the presidency demonstrated the strength and vitality of the Constitution and the democratic system. It didn’t have to work out that way. But the nation should remain eternally grateful that it did.
By the summer of 1974, the country’s faith in its government was wearing thin. The Watergate scandal had been percolating for two years. Congressional hearings were proceeding. Plea agreements were increasing. Televised Senate hearings were progressing. Evidence of a broad criminal conspiracy was building. Senior White House officials were being indicted. A secret White House taping system was being uncovered.
Recognizing the realities, Nixon announced his resignation — of his own accord and not at gunpoint.
It all occurred seamlessly and automatically. Troops were not mobilized. The Capitol Building was not assaulted. The stock market did not crash. There was no coup, no backroom dealing, no hallway haggling and no opposition from Congress. As Ford remarked in his first public comments as president:”My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a Government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”
Fifty years later, amid the political upheaval from the Biden withdrawal, Ford’s words again serve as much-needed reassurance. Looking back, the center had indeed held — against the most severe of tests. The genius of the Founding Fathers’ vision had been confirmed. And with that, the worrisome days of the summer of 1974 provide confidence for 2024’s weary and suspect citizenry that the democratic system is indeed quite durable.
It’s a confidence that’s not dependent on memorizing the 25th Amendment, reliving eighth grade civics class or mastering the rules of a national political party convention. It is, however, a confidence ultimately dependent upon the constant monitoring by an informed electorate, functionally familiar with the Constitution and the objectives of its Framers. That’s part of the fundamental responsibilities of citizenship.
That’s not a big ask for such a great reward. Because it’s the freedoms of which we are unaware — or to which we are inattentive — that are the ones most likely to be eroded or lost.
Michael Peregrine is a Chicago lawyer. He wrote this for the Chicago Tribune.
