After the U.S. Senate acquitted President Donald Trump of wrongdoing, he continued to assert that he did absolutely nothing wrong. This is almost certainly not true. In fact, his acquittal was supported by the compliance of a significant number of Republican senators who conceded that Trump did, indeed, do something wrong — their favorite word for it was “inappropriate” — but that what he did wasn’t so bad that it warranted removal from office. Which raises an interesting question: Have we slouched into an era in which we too readily indulge bad behavior and reduce the punishments that we impose for wrongdoing?