The Beatles to Monica Lewinsky
In the early 1960s the Beatles would launch a cultural revolution, ushering in the era of long hair, psychedelic drugs, and a young generation desiring to make it's political voice heard.
In Great Britain the Beatle revolution would lead to a liberalization of society, a labour government and a growth of the state that wouldn't get checked until the 1980s. In the United States the Beatle revolution lead to a backlash from a "majority" not prepared to give up its traditional and conservative values in the face of the "hippies." The result was the election of the self-admitted square, Richard Nixon. Nixon brought with him, not only his squareness and button down conservatism, but a deep seated hatred of the left and a paranoia toward his perceived enemies.
This paranoia would manifest itself in a whole range of secret activities, IRS audits, FBI investigations, and a cover up of a crime that had no reason to be committed. The exposure of this coverup lead first to a Congressional investigation and later to the use of a "special prosecutor" unconnected to the Executive branch and beyond the reach of Nixon's control and firing of investigators who did their job too well.
The special prosecutor laws would become a fixture of Washington politics. As the journalist who uncovered Watergate would later point out, the shadow of that scandal would cover all subsequent presidents. The use of the special prosecutor would be revived in the 1980s during the Iran-Contra affair and again in the 1990s to examine the Clinton's business dealings with the Whitewater Development Corporation. It was during this investigation that the special prosecutor began looking into anything unseeming connected with President Clinton. This lead him to a claim of sexual impropriety by a female state employee, Paula Jones. In the course of trying to build this case the name Monica Lewinsky turned up in the notes. A stained blue dress and impeachment vote would be the legacy of the first President to come of age supporting the views that Richard Nixon tried so hard to defeat.
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