It didn’t, though. Yes, there were nationally televised hearings in Congress, and an aggressive prosecutor who criminally charged a number of key Reagan aides and other players. But there was never any serious appetite for impeaching the Gipper. There was a perfect storm of reasons why. Reagan was always personally popular — despite moments when his political approval plunged — and the fact that he was America’s oldest president, coming off as disengaged, actually bolstered a sense that he was out-of-the-loop on the worst crimes. But Reagan had also been elected on an explicit promise to move America past the malaise of the 1970s, which had included Watergate. By 1987, many voters preferred ignorant triumphalism over the scold of accountability.