I was just recalling last night, how monumental it was for Nixon to say, "When the president does it, it's not illegal!" they made whole documentaries and books about how bad that is, and how damning of his admin it was. Trump says something worse every day.
Unfortunately, right wing lawyers built an entire "judicial philosophy" around Nixon's statement , called the Unitary Executive Theory. Six of those lawyers sit on the Supreme Court, which is how they gave Trump a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card in their infamous immunity decision.
But Nixon's base hadn't been brainwashed into fascism via the Internet thanks to a 15 year deluge of ragebait both real (but decontextualized) and manufactured.
Nixon was a big part of the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. So I'd argue base conditions were similar.
That's fair. Also America has pretty much always flirted with fascism. I'm just not sure anyone's base has reached quite this "whatever it takes" fervour since the civil war.
Frost Nixon (2008) could be a Marvel Cinematic Universe if it was remade and focused on Trump.