Why do people keep adding “-gate” to end of words to signal a scandal?? Can we please stop. The only scandal that that fits is Watergate, because that was the name of the fucking hotel!
I disagree. There is no such thing as a bootgate. Or the bootgate hotel. It is a silly made up word that is poor writing and journalism. The English language has plenty of descriptive words.
You don't get to disagree. You don't have to like it but the formulation is used because it is succinct and immediately understood. And that is how language works, whether you like it or not.
I remember in the 90s, when the compliant media was going along with a lot of hate radio, the snake handlers, and the black helicopter/Alex Jones/Bircher types that were all still hopping mad (and still are, if they are still kicking around) about not only Watergate (*), but also that Iran/Contra was getting a bit of coverage, too, and virtually everything, ever, was spun into a failed attempt to make a new scandal out of....Fostergate, Whitewatergate, Filegate, Travelgate, ChristmasOrnamentGate, ChinaGate, BrownGate, etc....
Oh, in addition, the radicalized right wing - and some of the left that likes to pretend they are so "principled", or that liberals are just showing "Russophobia" - kept calling the coverage of donnie's collusion with Russia, "Russiagate". Of course, they call all of it a "hoax".