Erlichman's quote

Does anyone even care about this anymore?


At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug
prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky
questions that he impatiently waved away. "You want to know what this
was really all about?" he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after
public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to
protect. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after
that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand
what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either
against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the
hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing
both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their
leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them
night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about
the drugs? Of course we did."


drummerboy said:

Does anyone even care about this anymore?





At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug
prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky
questions that he impatiently waved away. "You want to know what this
was really all about?" he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after
public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to
protect. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after
that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand
what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either
against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the
hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing
both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their
leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them
night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about
the drugs? Of course we did."

I care. I was fortunate to know three of the Chicago 7 on a first name basis.  I was nothing more than

one of the masses   But I had a paid job with two of the NYC peace groups at 5 Beekman St in the 

city.  We recognized the danger as the Nixon Administration made their lists of those who they considered dangerous.  There was a palpable feeling of fear in the air.   My desk was 10 feet from

the late Jim Peck,  one of the Freedom Riders.  He said that in the early 50's you could stand out on 

a street corner and pass out copies of the Constitution.  People were so cowed they refused to take them.  That is why I put such faith in the courts.   They struck down the Conspiracy law that convicted these good people.   And the criminal courts that did in Spiro Agnew,  Ehrlicman and so many of Nixon's 

cronies.  Even Attorney General Mitchell,  the highest ranking law enforcement official in the land, did the 

Perp walk.    Justice may be slow but it is our best hope for a clean Democracy.



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