The phrase you're looking for, I believe, is "tipping point." For the longest time, it was "we won't investigate, we won't ask questions, we won't waste time on this, we won't entertain this subject, we have important work to do, this is distracting us from the important tasks of governance, we have a budget to set, we have a healthcare bill to pass, we have bombs to drop on Afghanistan and Syria, we have a madman with nukes in North Korea."

Then we had an FBI memo implicating the President in obstruction of justice. That's the equivalent of this:

Matt Yglesias made the point that the FBI memo isn't a "where there's smoke there's fire" event like nearly everything else. It's the fire. It's the proximate felony.

The Watergate break-in was June '72. The smoking gun tape was August 4 '74. He was on a helicopter double-v'ing his way out of history August 9.

Say what you will about Nixon, he was an experienced politician with the savvy to run a country. Thus, it took two years and change before the scandal caught up with him. And, say what you will about Trump, he's never so much as held a position on an HOA board and he managed to lose money on casinos. It's unsurprising that he managed to blow himself up in just over 100 days.

Within five days of revealing Nixon's participation in this conversation:

Haldeman: That the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters call Pat Gray and just say, “Stay the hell out of this…this is ah, business here we don’t want you to go any further on it.” That’s not an unusual development,…

...mutherfucker was out. Which means, if history doesn't repeat itself but rhymes, Trump is gone by saturday.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. 'cuz I'll bet he goes to Mar El Lago, comes back, and continues to thrash and wail about for three to six more months. And that is the difference between a functional 2-party system and the landfill inferno we're faced with today.