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# Things change, but still stay the same
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/things-change-but-still-stay-the-same/
- Published: 2007-04-17T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T23:53:59.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

TALK ABOUT A TIMELESS REFRAIN. ALL of those words seem to fit today. Drug use — both legal and illegal — is at an all-time high among our youth. The forces for segregation these days are the people who wanted integration 40 years ago. Demonstrations are coming back about the war, the environment, immigration, the lack of jobs and women’s equal rights. Aggravation expands each day as traffic gets worse and summertime is almost here, and with it, comes an increase in the violent crime rates.

The latest word out of Washington is one of an administration that has gone woefully astray and lost what little moral bearings it had.

The latest big story is about the Republican Party paid for, and maintained, e-mail system that allowed White House operatives to work on both legitimate governmental work, while having full-time access to partisan political operatives. RNC computers and Blackberrys were provided to White House staffers, which allowed them to segregate their “real work” from the campaigning work that is not supposed to be done using federal assets, such as their computers, e-mail and phones. Of course, no one could foresee the potential loss of this information, so it was not that big a deal. But, accidents happen and it appears that the administration has mistakenly “lost” untold thousands of e-mails.

They’re sorry. You know times are strange when Newt Gingrich is breaking ranks with his party’s leader. Even Newt, the man behind the “Contract with America,” has come to see that there needs to be change at the top. He’s calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Change is needed, but I don’t think we should stop at the AG’s office. Let’s keep going all the way up to the President himself. As any history scholar can tell you, there are huge similarities between this president and the 37th president — Richard M. Nixon.

Both presidents arrived in office by saying whatever was needed to get to power. Both had huge egos, created an insular administration that was immense in staff, and rabidly paranoid. Both spoke of fiscal responsibility while simultaneously engaging in huge government giveaways to garner votes at the time of their re-election. Both promised to end wars, and yet both seemed to escalate the number of men and women that have been sent into war zones.

> “Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration, aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation. Ball of confusion. Oh yeah, that’s what the world is today. The sale of pills are at an all-time high. Young folks walking ’round with their heads in the sky. The cities ablaze in the summer time.” — YOU KNOW TIMES ARE STRANGE WHEN NEWT GINGRICH IS BREAKING RANKS WITH HIS PARTY’S LEADER

When it comes to ranking the scandal plagued administrations, from Harding’s Teapot Dome — an administration that gave away natural resource-rich federal lands to industrialists (sounds familiar doesn’t?) to Nixon’s eventual downfall over the Watergate break-in, I’m sure that this administration is going to rate as one of the highest.

With the almost daily disclosures about some new transgression, or flouting of some federal legislation that simply gets in the way of the mission of the administration, can it be much longer before the American public has had enough and sees this man for what he really is? Can the American Electorate continue to ignore the reality of the crass and power hungry nature of who these people are?

Of course, one could hope that Bush 43 would continue to emulate the late President Nixon, and resign, but I’m sure that unless he’s facing certain criminal conviction that won’t happen. Besides, I’m not certain that it would do anything. If the vice president suddenly ascended to the Big Chair,what would change?

I don’t think that the Congress is going to impeach this man, or this administration. I don’t believe that there is enough power in the opposition to scare this administration. But I pray that when the next election comes along, we’ve had enough of a wake up call to seek a president who has the credentials to clean up this mess.

An embattled president, a frustrated electorate, a country tired of war and on the brink of financial crisis, 1919? 1972? or 2007? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

DAVID PISARRA is a business development lawyer in the Santa Monica firm of Pisarra & Grist. He or (310) 664-9969.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 17, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041707.pdf?ref=smdp.com)