It's been over 40 years since former President Richard Nixon resigned the presidency over Watergate. But, the story of Watergate is almost impossible to tell. It's too big and too murky. It's full of files that were burned and a tape that was erased. It's full of characters named McCord and Magruder and Mitchell, who are hard to keep track of. With each passing year, it becomes more of an inert thing and less of a breathing, wriggling, writhing creature.
And yet, Watergate survives in what we call Memes, ideas that stay alive and spread. Take something like, "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up." That one originated with Watergate, but it has been slapped on everybody from Martha Stewart to Chris Christie.
Today, over 40 years from the date of Richard Nixon's resignation, we'll talk about all the ways the story stayed alive in our collective memory and all the ways it died.
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