James Fallows has been a journalist since 1972 and he covered the Watergate scandal so he knows what he s talking about.And when Fallows says that Donald Trump s ongoing and ever-growing Russia scandal is WORSE than Watergate, every American should take notice.That s exactly what Fallows did in a new article for The Atlantic published on Friday.Fallows remembers the Watergate scandal clearly despite the fact that it unfolded 45 years ago.The scandal is known as the Watergate scandal because some of President Richard Nixon s goons broke into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate hotel.Nixon tried to cover up the crime by repeatedly lying and refusing to cooperate with investigations. He went so far as to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor assigned to the investigation. Cox wanted Nixon to release White House recordings and Nixon refused. Nixon wanted Cox to back off but Cox refused. Nixon then fired him. After that, it was all downhill for Nixon. The Supreme Court ordered him to release the tapes and they were so damning that Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.But Trump s Russia scandal is worse. Based simply on what is known so far, this scandal looks worse than Watergate,  Fallows wrote.  Worse for and about the president. Worse for the overall national interest. Worse in what it suggests about the American democratic system s ability to defend itself. Fallows points out that Watergate was a mere burglary in an effort to find information on Nixon s political opponents. Trump s scandal, on the other hand, is:Nothing less than attacks by an authoritarian foreign government on the fundamentals of American democracy, by interfering with an election and doing so as part of a sustained effort that included parallel interference in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and elsewhere. At worst, such efforts might actually have changed the election results. At least, they were meant to destroy trust in democracy. Not much of this is fully understood or proven, but the potential stakes are incomparably greater than what happened during Watergate, crime and cover-up alike.Fallows then compared Nixon s firing of Cox to Trump s firing of FBI Director James Comey.While Nixon  paid lip-service to the concept of due process and checks-and-balances  and at least acted like he was  sticking to some recognizable rules,  Trump s has openly disdained and flouted the rules. Nothing Donald Trump has done, on the campaign trail or in office, has expressed awareness of, or respect for, established rules,  Fallows continued.  Nixon s private comments could be vile, but nothing he said in public is comparable to Trump s dismissing James Comey as a  showboat,  or the thuggishly menacing tweet that Trump sent out today. The tweet Fallows referenced is a clear threat from Trump aimed at Comey in an effort to keep him from speaking to the press.James Comey better hope that there are no  tapes  of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017And while Nixon was a  dark and complex  person who was  deeply knowledgeable  and  publicly disciplined  and possessed  political and strategic intelligence,  Trump has repeatedly proven that  he is impulsive, and ignorant, and apparently beyond the reach of any control, even his own. And what s also worse about Trump s Russia scandal is the way Republicans have circled the wagons around Trump and have made attempt after attempt to bury any investigations into his misconduct.While Republicans like Jason Chaffetz, Mitch McConnell, and Devin Nunes have all tried to sabotage investigations on Trump s behalf, it was Republicans like Charles Wiggins, Barry Goldwater, and Howard Baker who put their country before party and sided against Nixon.The Republicans who turned against Nixon will be remembered for doing the right thing when their country needed them most. Today s Republicans will only be remembered for doing nothing while their country burned to the ground. Fallows even points out that all it would take is three brave Republicans in the Senate to join Democrats to get a truly independent investigation rolling.The question is whether they actually care about their country, the Constitution, and the integrity of the office of the presidency enough to do so.Our country needs heroes now more than ever. Republicans could be those heroes if they would just stop being cowards and stop being Trump s puppets.Featured Image: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images