SOCIETY -- not "Democrats" -- needs to reign in the insanity on the right.
It is not the responsibility of the Democratic Party to somehow force the republicans to play by the rules, engage in civil discourse, or be patriotic, honest and decent. These are the basic precursors, the ground rules, for playing in the game.
If you’re playing baseball against another team, and the other team is armed with pocket knives and stabbing your teammates as they circle the bases, you don’t say “how can my team win against the other team?” or”we aren’t fighting hard enough”.
You go to the people who set the rules and/or to the judges, and ban the other team for life. They get arrested if they’ve broken regular laws (like don’t stab people), and they get disbanded if they break too many baseball regulations.
Stop blaming the blue team that The red team has thrown decency and fair play completely out the window.
SOCIETY as a whole is responsible for policing the behavior of the parties. Legislators need to pass laws with teeth, and bodies need to be established to enforce them. But ordinary people need to be re-taught rules of behavior that disdain and dissuade the moblike behavior of the rightwing and its base.
It is not the job of the Democrats to encourage or teach the GOP to care about the country and honor their oath. The voters and society as a whole have to learn habits and mechanisms that enforce civility and fairness.
Just as the government once put out films to teach people to be anti-fascist, taught civics in schools, and created a myth of “American exceptionalism”, now we need nonpartisan action to reinforce civility and fairness as fundamental to patriotism and to stable governance.
That job is too big to be carried on the shoulders of only one party.
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