There have been confessions dating back to the Nixon administration of war like tactics to directly harm the democratic base (and plenty more before him). It is

There have been confessions dating back to the Nixon administration of war like tactics to directly harm the democratic base (and plenty more before him). It is not new, they can just be more blatant the more drawn the partisan lines are into independent isolated silos. After all, what are republicans distraught by this behavior going to do? Side with the enemy, whose ideals their culture have defined as not just wrong but evil? Or in the inverse, is a liberal dissatisfied with the democrats behavior going to side with those whom the left deem imbeciles and tyrants? We saw in this last election what voter disdain in the major parties causes. A bunch of third party votes, some minor protests that the media systemically silenced or condemned, that still pale next to the structural rigidity of first past the post and a firmly established ideological divide meant to keep the poor fighting amongst themselves.