Trump, no doubt, often behaves outrageously and improperly. But the sense that he is an unprecedented threat to American democracy has also made his opponents feel justified in lowering their own standards to oppose him. Just this week, we’ve seen Trump opponents promote the presidential candidacy of recovering birther Joe Walsh. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday was forced to apologize for airing a thinly-sourced report on Trump’s financial ties to Russia, acknowledging that it didn’t go through the normal standards of verification. And now, on Thursday, we get this OIG report…

Those concerned with the destruction of norms in the Trump era need to consider the question in two ways. There is the threat of Trump’s actions eroding norms, but there is also the danger that his opponents take actions in opposing Trump that actually hasten the destruction of norms instead of preserving them.