Both parties are misbehaving in line with their historic character
by Michael Barone
July 17, 2019 07:44 PM The air is thick with lamentations that our two political parties are tearing themselves (and the nation) to pieces. The Republican president has picked a Twitter fight on with four Democratic freshman congresswomen and the Democratic speaker of the U.S. House has chosen to violate House rules to pick a fight with the president.
All this has been treated as unprecedented: Donald Trump’s conduct by Democrats and legacy media, Nancy Pelosi’s by Republicans and Trump supporters. That’s true in a trivial sense. Twitter didn’t exist before 2006; only seven current House members, not including Pelosi, were serving the last time a House speaker (Tip O’Neill) was called out (by Newt Gingrich) for violating House rules, in May 1984.
But actually, there’s precedent aplenty. Both parties are behaving in line with their historic character, apparent since they were founded amid swirling political controversies: the Democrats in 1832, the Republicans in 1854.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/both-parties-are-misbehaving-in-line-with-their-historic-character
