Two key changes since Nixon: a massive divide in American political life — we hate the other team more than ever before — and a media climate that fuels and reinforces that chasm, powered by Fox News on the Republican side.

Himes said he was “a little stunned by the unanimity on the Republican side,” especially among retiring lawmakers who don’t have to worry about surviving a GOP primary had they gone against Trump. “We’re in a place right now where all that matters to my Republican colleagues is the defense of the president,” he added…

Republicans know well by now that anyone who steps out of line in Trump’s GOP faces near certain excommunication and humiliation, with a long trail of upended careers as proof in the likes of Jeff Flake, Bob Corker and Mark Sanford. No one is safe, not even Sen. John McCain, a war hero.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cohen said. “The Republican Party today is not loyal to principles as such, but loyal to the person of Donald Trump. He is really a cult figure. Nixon was not a cult figure. With Nixon, you didn’t feel the personal loyalty to the man, but to the party.”