Eldergays, compare/contrast Watergate with Trump.

Politics was far less polarized then. If you did something wrong, you were expected to be accountable. It changed with Reagan and has gotten worse.

Nixon resigned before they could proceed with impeachment. Watergate didn't happen overnight - and there was more to it than just the break-in. There were a series of events / scandals / bad behavior that came out over months.

Then when Nixon did the Saturday Night Massacre, firing the special prosecutor and others, the Republican party knew they had to shut it down before it got worse.

Some would say that Republicans had more of a moral compass back then - perhaps. But there was plenty of the same dirty tricks being played back then. They've just become worse over the years.

NIxon didn't have Fox News around, pumping up his base about how any accountability was an "attack" on him and them. Nixon would have survived if he had Fox.

What changed, OP? What hasn't changed?

During Watergate, there were three television networks, staffed by professional journalists and editors. Things were vetted before they hit the air waves. Now we have social media and any shit you care to shit can be broadcast around the world in a flash, free of supervision, free of review, free of fact checking. We are now drowning in political propaganda that is created and circulated in ways heretofore unseen.

We also have a loss of honor in our society. It has been replaced by partisan bickering. It's not that the partisan bickering was not there in the past. It was. But it was tempered by a greater purpose and a sense of honor that today is no where in sight. So all we are left with is partisan warfare.

I am confident that much of this loss of a sense of honor and a devotion to this country comes from the ending of the military draft. We need a program of compulsory national service. It could be served in a military setting or in a civil setting. But it should happen. The loss of personal connection to the country itself allows elected officials to be far more easily loyal to a petty political tyrant like Trump.

R3 - not so fast. There were still conservative pundits who supported Nixon and went on TV and wrote editorials to that effect.

Nixon still had a 26% approval rating when he resigned. And then Ford pardoned him - once again, preventing the scumbag from being prosecuted.

So some stuff never changes. I will say that more people know get their 'news' from self-selected right-wing outlets and social media, so they are grossly misinformed.

R5, those conservative pundits who were supporting Nixon didn't have a 24-hour per day network putting out their propaganda and false facts. That's why his approval dropped to 26% rather than being propped up in the 45% range like Trump. Once his popularity dropped, the politicians dropped him. Senators now know they would get trashed on Fox if they didn't stand behind Trump in every way, so they stick with him.

R6 - well, I would say it's not just Fox, but the Republican party may endorse a different candidate or ice you out completely.

But, my point was that it took several months for people to get to a majority opinion that Nixon should be removed. Also, even at the end, there were still 26% who supported Nixon.

That head-in-the-sand 26% is still with us in the Republican party - but it seems to have grown.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg would never live in a Trump apartment.

Nixon wasn't impeached. Clinton, Andrew Johnson, and Trump are the only three that share that (dis)honor.

I think R4 has a point - I've often thought that the politicians of 40-50 years ago were more focused on what's best for the country. Maybe because some served in WW2 or because they lived through both the Depression and the War, but we've somehow lost all of that in the 80's.

Let me clarify - Republicans have lost sight of that.