It is one of Washington’s most durable cocktail-party myths, uttered with a sigh of weary sophistication, as though moral equivalence were a badge of realism rather than a refusal to look at the record. History, alas, is a terrible wingman for this argument. From Richard Nixon onward, Republican administrations have produced a veritable conveyor belt of indictments, convictions, guilty pleas, prison sentences, and eleventh-hour pardons, while Democratic administrations, whatever their sins of vanity or hypocrisy, have managed to keep their executive branches largely out of the dock.
This is not a matter of partisan vibes or selective outrage. It is arithmetic.
From Nixon to Biden, Republican administrations average dozens of criminal cases per term, often clustered around defining scandals that engulfed the White House itself. Democratic administrations, by contrast, barely scrape into the single digits, their legal troubles typically isolated, minor, or more awkwardly for conspiracy theorists, ending in acquittals.
The Numbers Don’t Blink
Across the modern presidency:
- Republican administrations (Nixon, Reagan, both Bushes, Trump):
150+ indictments, 120+ convictions, spanning Watergate, Iran-Contra, the Abramoff lobbying scandal, and the sprawling criminal universe orbiting Donald Trump. - Democratic administrations (Carter, Clinton, Obama, Biden):
Roughly three indictments and two convictions, mostly technical or minor, with no systemic corruption scandal touching the Oval Office.
If this were a corporate compliance report, the board would have called an emergency meeting decades ago.
Watergate: The Original Sin
Richard Nixon’s presidency did not merely end in disgrace; it detonated. Watergate produced 72 indictments, ensnaring 68 individuals, including 28 senior administration officials, attorneys general, chiefs of staff, counsels, and campaign operatives. Fifty-eight convictions followed, many via guilty pleas, and a not-insignificant number of those men went to prison. Nixon himself escaped indictment only by resignation and the famously prophylactic pardon from Gerald Ford.
This was not a “few bad apples.” This was the orchard.
Reagan and the Normalization of “It Was Complicated”
Ronald Reagan’s sunny rhetoric masked an administration riddled with criminal exposure. Iran-Contra alone produced 14 indictments, including household names like Oliver North and John Poindexter, with 11 convictions (some later overturned on technical grounds). Add to this the HUD corruption scandal, which generated 18 indictments and 16 convictions, and the pattern becomes unmistakable: criminality was not incidental; it was structural.
George H. W. Bush’s term, often portrayed as a gentlemanly interlude, still carried the legal residue of Iran-Contra, ultimately capped by Bush’s Christmas Eve pardons, which ensured that several key figures would never testify under oath.
The Bush Years, Redux
George W. Bush’s administration brought fewer operatic scandals but steady legal attrition: 16 indictments and 16 convictions or guilty pleas, from Scooter Libby’s perjury to the tentacular reach of Jack Abramoff’s lobbying empire, which slithered through Republican congressional and executive offices alike.
Trump: Quantity Meets Spectacle
Then came Donald Trump, who managed the remarkable feat of turning criminal exposure into a branding exercise. His administration and campaign circle generated more than 25 indictments, with numerous convictions and guilty pleas, many stemming from the Mueller investigation, campaign finance crimes, and contempt of Congress.
Paul Manafort went to prison. Michael Cohen went to prison. Roger Stone was convicted. Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro served time for defying Congress. Several others pleaded guilty, cooperated, or were rescued by presidential pardons dispensed with monarchical flourish in the final days of Trump’s term.
And then there is Trump himself.
For the first time in American history, a former president became a convicted felon: 34 felony convictions in New York for falsifying business records related to hush-money payments during the 2016 campaign. Add to this three other indictments, classified documents, federal election interference, and Georgia’s RICO case and the picture is less “witch hunt” than organized crime syllabus.
The Democratic Contrast
Jimmy Carter produced a single minor case. Bill Clinton’s administration saw two indictments, one acquittal, and one plea deal later pardoned. Barack Obama’s executive branch produced zero indictments. Joe Biden’s, likewise, produced none.
This is not because Democrats are morally pure, or Republicans uniquely villainous by nature. It is because governing philosophies matter. So do norms, respect for law, and whether loyalty to the president is treated as a defense against criminal statutes.
The Bottom Line
The “both sides” argument survives only by blurring scale, context, and consequence. When one party repeatedly produces administrations riddled with indictments, convictions, prison sentences, and mass pardons and the other largely does not, neutrality becomes complicity with false balance.
History keeps the receipts. The rest is denial, dressed up as cynicism.
Why It Matters
The claim that “both parties are the same” is not skepticism, it is a refusal to engage with evidence. When one party repeatedly produces administrations marked by indictments, convictions, prison sentences, and mass pardons, while the other largely does not, moral equivalence becomes a tool of misinformation. This myth erases accountability, normalizes corruption, and conditions the public to accept criminal governance as inevitable.
Key Takeaways
- Republican administrations consistently produce vastly higher numbers of indictments and convictions than Democratic ones.
- Watergate, Iran-Contra, Abramoff, and Trump-era scandals reveal systemic, not incidental—criminality.
- Democratic administrations show comparatively minimal legal exposure at the executive level.
- “Both sides” rhetoric collapses when scale, frequency, and severity are examined honestly.
- False balance enables corruption by disguising it as realism.
further Reading – Bookshop.org
- Dark Money – Jane Mayer. A definitive examination of how unaccountable wealth corrodes democratic institutions. https://civilheresy.com/dark money
- The Breach – Denver Riggleman. A firsthand account of the extremism and corruption festering inside modern Republican politics. https://civilheresy.com/the breach
- On Tyranny – Timothy Snyder. Essential lessons on how democracies decay when lies are normalized and accountability is dismissed. https://civilheresy.com/on tyranny
If you’ve ever been told “both sides are the same,” now you’ve seen the receipts. Share this. History doesn’t need spin, it already testified.
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