In the early 1970s, when the next Republican president was under investigation for corruption and abuse of power, the monstrous image of Johnson that conservative media helped to paint became part of President Richard Nixon’s defense. Conservative media figures did their best to downplay Nixon’s crimes, especially in relation to Johnson’s. The rapid expansion of conservative media in the 1990s and 2000s, and the conservative scandal machine that powered it, transformed American politics. The Clinton impeachment showed that the Republican Party was fully on board with the conservative media’s scandalization project. Even Republican presidential candidates got in on the act, as when President Trump led rallygoers in chants of “Lock her up.”

Source: New York Times January 24, 2020 20:26 UTC