The following was a post I made in a discussion thread elsewhere, but I thought it was worth putting here. My apologies for the weird formatting and single-sentence paragraphs.
Ford was not immediately impeached when he pardoned Nixon for his crimes involving trying to change the outcome of an election by stealing debate notes.
Then, we found out that Nixon also negotiated with the North Vietnamese (who we were at war with ) in order to prevent peace so that he could get elected. He never went to prison for that either.
Then Reagan sold advanced missile systems to a terrorist regime in Iran in order to get money to illegally fund a bunch of nun-rapers in Central America. He never went to prison for that.
Then, we found out Reagan negotiated with that same terrorist regime to get them to keep American hostages longer so that he could get elected. He didn't go to prison for that either.
Then, we found out Reagan committed the same crime as Nixon but was successful. He stole the debate notes of Jimmy Carter and used them to win a debate, which probably affected the outcome of the election.
Then George Bush I used "strategic pardons" to avoid criminal consequences for his role in the Iran-Contra affair. This proved to be totally unnecessary.
His son George Bush II confessed to war crimes during a fucking press conference. Was George Bush II ever convicted of the war crimes the whole world saw him confess to? Of course not.
Also, George Bush II also stole debate notes from his political opponents and used them to affect the outcome of the election. He never went to prison for that either.
At every step along the way, Democrats and law enforcement told us that it would be "too disruptive" to have the rule of law any more in America.
Trump is the inevitable result of the last half century of Democrats and law enforcement telling America that having the rule of law would be "too disruptive."
If you think Trump is going to prison, you haven't been paying attention to anything that has happened in American politics in the last half of a century.
Trump will not go to prison, and so the Republicans will be emboldened to try and overthrow the government again. Eventually, they will be successful in ending Constitutional rule, and as the Democrats and law enforcement are sent to the gulags for execution or "re-education," they will still be telling us that America can't have the rule of law because that would be "too disruptive."
The whole [bad word] country has been asleep. We are going to lose the republic, and we deserve to lose the republic. If we gave a damn about preserving the Republic, then Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes would have gone to prison, and Ford would at the very least have been impeached, but those are the things that happen in countries that have the rule of law. Those are the kinds of things that happen in countries that are not failed states.