On Friday night at the Amos Fortune Forum, Carl Bernstein shared a quote from President George Washington’s farewell address, which he says all but predicted the actions of former Presidents Richard Nixon and Donald Trump.
“‘Cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and usurp for themselves the reins of government.’ Two of our presidents, Nixon and Trump, demonstrated the shocking genius of our first president,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein, who is most famous for exposing the Watergate scandal orchestrated by Nixon in the 1970s, along with his colleague Bob Woodward at The Washington Post, spoke in Jaffrey Friday night at the first Amos Fortune Forum of the summer. Moderator Kenneth Campbell of Jaffrey was Bernstein’s roommate 60 years ago in a house outside of Washington, D.C. They and a third housemate, John Fialka, were young reporters at the time.
“We were young guys full of ambition, learning the trade of reporting, sharing experiences and competing with each other at the same time,” said Campbell. “Carl Bernstein — by intellect, life history, writing talent, typing speed and personality — is a natural.”
Bernstein spoke fondly of those early years in the trade, during which he worked for a paper called the Washington Evening Star. That experience gave him the skills he used to expose Watergate later in his career, he said.
“No kid had a better seat in that country, and no kid had a more joyous experience learning that trade,” he said. “I really grew up and was educated in that newsroom at the Star.”
One of the most-emphasized points of Bernstein’s presentation was about the nature of the truth, which he learned while growing up in and reporting on the era of civil rights.
“The truth is not always neutral,” he said. “The truth is not neutral about lynchings. The truth was not neutral about Nixon. And the truth is not neutral about Donald Trump.”
Bernstein said he never believed that any president could do worse crimes than Nixon.
“Then along came Trump,” Bernstein said. “(He was) the only seditious president of the United States, and the most dangerous by far to American democracy.”
Although Trump is no longer in office, Bernstein still feels that American democracy is at risk.
“We’re a young country. We’re also the oldest democracy in the world,” he said. “I don’t think it’s about cracks (in American democracy). I think it’s about huge chasms.”
Despite the issues facing the country, which Bernstein says were exacerbated by Trump, he believes there is hope.
“The biggest hope is young people,” he said during an interview Saturday. “(Their values) are in some ways reflective of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations, but they’re also reflective of their own time and experience. They offer some real hope, particularly in terms of how much contact kids today have with kids who are different from themselves, whether its racial, whether its economic, all kinds of aspects.”
Another aspect of journalism today that Bernstein touched on is the rise of social media.
“I think social media is a fabulous platform. The question is, how do you make it responsible?” he said during the interview, after saying at the forum, “Anybody can be a reporter, an editor, a curator, without any supervision, or any commitment to the best attainable version of the truth.”
Bernstein feels a commitment to old journalistic values while using new technologies is a possible solution. Some of these values are having an editor and a news organization behind a reporter, finding two or more sources to back up every claim and always seeking the best attainable version of the truth.
“People in this country on both sides, it seems, have been looking for information not to find the most-attainable version of the truth. They’re trying to underscore what they believe,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein finished his presentation by hearkening back to the questions of Washington’s farewell address, as well as the words of Gen. John Stark, an American Revolutionary War hero who wrote New Hampshire’s state motto, “Live Free or Die,” in a letter in 1809.
“What will the future of our democracy be?” Bernstein said.
Following the presentation, Bernstein opened the floor to questions. After the end of the hour allotted for the forum, Campbell presented Bernstein with a half-gallon of New Hampshire maple syrup as a thank you for giving the presentation. Bernstein then spent time signing books and programs for attendees and talking with them at the First Church in Jaffrey’s Parish House, across the street from the Jaffrey Meetinghouse, where the forum was held.
Friday’s presentation marked the beginning of the Amos Fortune Forum’s 75th season of live presentations. Prior to Bernstein’s presentation, a celebration was held outside the meetinghouse with refreshments and a silent auction.
Owen Houghton has lived in Jaffrey for 47 years and gone to Amos Fortune Forum presentations every summer since moving to the town.
“I’ve come every year, it’s been a highlight of my summer,” he said.
Houghton discussed the importance of Amos Fortune himself, a former enslaved person who bought his freedom and ran a successful tanning business in Jaffrey, where he lived with his wife and adopted daughter. Upon his death in 1801, he donated much of his estate to the Town of Jaffrey and its schools. Some of this money became a fund to support the forum.
“We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Amos,” Houghton said.
Another attendee at the celebration was Bob Putnam, who will be speaking at the forum on July 15. He’s an author, former professor and Jaffrey resident who spoken three previous times and whose presentation July 15 will be on how to overcome the polarization in America.
“This forum is an antidote to everything that’s wrong with America today,” Putnam said. “The polarization and the inequality and the self-centeredness and the social isolation … the Amos Fortune Forum for 75 years has been pushing in the opposite direction.”
There will be Amos Fortune Forum presentations every Friday at 8 p.m. through Aug. 19. The full schedule with speaker details can be found on the forum website, amosfortune.com.