This has been the problem though, there’s no depths Republicans aren’t willing to sink to, while Democrats still keep trying to mostly stick to the rules. The Republicans know that the Democrats aren’t willing to play as dirty as they are, so they keep resorting to increasingly immoral if not outright illegal tactics. Eventually Democrats inch a little closer to the line and then Republicans resort to something even worse and our democracy gets a little more tattered.

This process has been going on for a while but it’s been pretty slow moving until Trump got in when things accelerated massively. Republicans before Trump at least attempted to maintain a thin veneer of legitimacy, while Trump just decided to go full mask off villain and to start saying all the quiet parts out loud.

If there’s a silver lining to this it’s that Trump may have overplayed his hand. The GOP had been carefully laying the groundwork for a quiet coup for decades and had nearly sewn things up with the takeover of the Supreme Court when Trump came busting through the wall like a big orange Koolaid man and attempted a very ham fisted coup upending a lot of the GOPs plans.