Politics & Power Quote by Howard Fineman

Fineman’s most cutting move is the word “crusades” - a term that flatters power by laundering policy into holy mission. Vietnam and Watergate weren’t framed, in their moment, as blunders or crimes; they were packaged as tests of resolve, order, patriotism, and institutional self-protection. “Crusade” captures the emotional mechanics of that packaging: once an enterprise is sanctified, dissent can be treated as heresy, and ends can be invoked to excuse almost any means.

The quote also implicates the press without letting the public off the hook. By pairing “to the press” with “perhaps to a majority of Americans,” Fineman sketches a feedback loop: journalists amplify official narratives; the public rewards them; the resulting consensus becomes a kind of permission structure. The qualifier “perhaps” is doing real work - it signals caution about overclaiming, while still pointing to a broad cultural complicity in the era’s confidence. It’s a subtle jab at the comforting myth that elites alone manufacture catastrophe.

“Seemed like a good idea at the time” is the knife twist. It’s not just hindsight irony; it’s an anatomy of how democratic societies rationalize escalation and secrecy. Vietnam’s moral story was sold as defending freedom; Watergate’s could be rationalized as “necessary” hardball in a high-stakes political war. Fineman’s intent is less to relitigate the scandals than to show how the rhetoric of nobility is itself a technology - one that can make the indefensible feel not only acceptable, but righteous.