Once upon a time, Democrats and Republicans could actually breathe the same air and have a drink with one another. Those days are long gone. It was back in 2002 when they actually worked together to make the ads during a political campaign more reasonable and less outright vindictive and nasty. It was 2002 when they enacted the “Stand By Your Ad” legislation that was part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. You had to state personally: “I approve this message.” The idea was that lawmakers would have to play fair together in the schoolyard making candidates less inclined to put out ads that were false or just plain nasty. Any public communication made by a political committee — including communications that do not expressly advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified federal candidate or solicit a contribution — must also display a disclaimer. Those days of civility are long gone and the fall out has been the rising 3rd party movement.
This time it looks like people are just abandoning the old party loyalties and setting out on their own. The political landscape we are entering in 2019 into 2023 is going to be very interesting and anything but politics as usual. This nasty infighting is indicative that indeed Democrats and Republicans cannot even breathe the same air any more.