#aka the impeachment and removal tool worked

[driftbending]

In the wake of the 2016 election, many progressive opinion makers concluded that Democrats needed to "fight like Republicans." If Republicans were going to break the rules, the argument went, Democrats had no choice but to respond in kind. Acting with self-restraint and civility would be like a boxer entering the ring with a hand tied behind his back. When confronted with a bully who is willing o use any means necessary to win, those who play by the rules risk playing the sucker. [...] In our view, the idea that Democrats should "fight like Republicans" is misguided. First of all, evidence from other countries suggests that such a strategy often plays directly into the hands of authoritarians. Scorched-earth tactics often erode support for the opposition by scaring off moderates. And they unify progovernment forces, even as dissidents within the incumbent party close ranks in the face of an uncompromising opposition. And when the opposition fights dirty, it provides the government with justification for cracking down. [...]  Where institutional channels exist, opposition groups should use them. Even if Democrats were to succeed in weakening or removing President Trump via hardball tactics, their victory would be Pyrrhic---for they would inherit a democracy stripped of its remaining protective guardrails. If the Trump administration were brought to its knees by obstructionism, of if President Trump were impeached without a strong bipartisan consensus, the effect would be to reinforce---and perhaps hasten---the dynamics of partisan antipathy and norm erosion that helped bring Trump to power to begin with. As much as a third of the country would likely view Trump's impeachment as the machinations of a vast left-wing conspiracy---maybe even a coup. American politics would be left dangerously unmoored. This sort of escalation rarely ends well. If Democrats do not work to restore norms of mutual toleration and forbearance, their next president will likely confront an opposition willing to use any means necessary to defeat them. And if partisan rifts deepen and our unwritten rules continue to fray, Americans could eventually elect a president who is even more dangerous than Trump. Opposition to the Trump administration's authoritarian behavior should be muscular, but it should seek to preserve, rather than violate, democratic rules and norms. Where possible, opposition should center on Congress, the courts, and, of course, elections. If Trumps is defeated via democratic institutions, it will strengthen those institutions.

How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt