Once, Talk of an Enemies List Was Shocking

Now candidates openly speak of being proud of the enemies they’ve made. When Richard Nix­on’s secret “en­emies list” was dis­closed in the Wa­ter­gate hear­ings in 1973, the coun­try was hor­ri­fied to learn that the White House was look­ing for ways “to screw our polit­ic­al en­emies.” It led dir­ectly to the second art­icle of im­peach­ment against the pres­id­ent. Forty-two years later, when five Demo­crat­ic can­did­ates de­bat­ing in Las Ve­gas were only too happy to boast of their own lists of en­emies, the coun­try yawned.

This was des­pite the breath­tak­ing es­cal­a­tion...