

This is a favorite GOP tactic.
Once they get elected, they have unlimited funds for legal fees. So they do wildly illegal stuff and force Progressives to fight in court. If they win, they get to keep the oppressive law and if they lose they’ve cost the Progressives money that could have been spent on a political campaign.
After Nixon resigned, even his worst enemies were okay with letting him get away with it. Almost no one was calling for Ford to be impeached or demanding Nixon be jailed.
For the Left, the lesson of Watergate was that the system worked. For the Right the lesson was that they had to change the system so none of them ever had to be punished for anything, ever.
A lot of Reagan’s ‘deregulation’ was aimed at dismantling the press and getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine.