1. As we head towards the Senate trial it's useful to put Trump's impeachment in some perspective, which means recognizing that the outcome Watergate was the exception, not the norm. Successful Cover-ups are more common than president's being held to account.
2. Even Nixon didn't get punished for all his crimes, even his worst ones. Watergate was small potatoes to the fact that as a candidate in 1968, Nixon covertly scuttled peace talks in Vietnam in order to win the election.
3. At least one former Trump official sees Nixon's 1968 soliciting of foreign help (as well as the alleged deal Reagan made with Iran in 1980) as a positive precedent for Russia co-operation, as @dfriend pointed out in Mother @MotherJones motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
4. Let's take former Trump official KT McFarland (a Deputy National Security Advisor) at her word. What we have are 4 cases of GOP soliciting foreign interference in a presidential election: Nixon 1968, Reagan (allegedly) 1980, Trump 2016, and Trump 2019.
5. In each of these cases -- three of which are beyond dispute and one murkier -- GOP closed ranks to cover-up a scandal. As I argue in the Nation, that's the real norm, not the Watergate anomaly of a president forced to resign: thenation.com/article/nixon-…
