My friends argue that all politicians commit corrupt actions, and Trump is no different.

My friends make this argument often, and I understand why it sounds fair. But it contains a flaw serious enough to collapse the whole case.

“Everybody does it” speaks only to frequency. It says nothing about magnitude, scope or consequence. And degree is where the real argument lives.

A parking ticket and a murder are both violations of law. No serious person argues they deserve equal treatment.

A local official who steers a contract to his brother-in-law causes real harm — to a community, perhaps for years. A president who compromises institutions, redirects public resources for personal benefit and reshapes the architecture of accountability causes harm of an entirely different order of magnitude.

Frequency without degree is meaningless. A cold and Stage 4 cancer are both illness. Everyone catches colds. That doesn’t make cancer unremarkable.

Degree is the entire ballgame.

Paul Southland