12th February 2017, 9:24 PM
That is the challenge really, how do you win against those people without descending to their level? Outside of the issue of physical violence this is a very pertinent question in government as well, where the Democrats have still not come up with an answer to Republican stonewalling. What do you do when the other party is willing to break the spirit of the rules in order to further their aims? The analogy I've seen around that the Democrats and Republicans were playing chess in a house, but the Republicans decided to set the house on fire... while the Dems continue to play chess alone in the burning house, as if that can somehow win while the Republicans run around crazily burning things... it's pretty accurate, really. But running around setting things on fire yourself would be stupid and even more damaging, so how is our party supposed to respond to that?
Of course, now the Republicans control the government and are struggling with that in part for that exact reason, because after years of being "the party of NO" they suddenly have to govern and can't while sticking to the policy positions they currently have, but even so, it's still a huge problem without a great answer. I don't like the idea of descending to their level, blocking everything, violating the spirit of the rules, doing un-democratic things if it benefits us... but how do we get back to a place where we have two functioning parties, when one is having so much success by being terrible? And how do you stop them? Tough questions indeed.
Of course, now the Republicans control the government and are struggling with that in part for that exact reason, because after years of being "the party of NO" they suddenly have to govern and can't while sticking to the policy positions they currently have, but even so, it's still a huge problem without a great answer. I don't like the idea of descending to their level, blocking everything, violating the spirit of the rules, doing un-democratic things if it benefits us... but how do we get back to a place where we have two functioning parties, when one is having so much success by being terrible? And how do you stop them? Tough questions indeed.