I think what many societies have discovered in the past few years is, if a proposed authoritarian policy only (or just disproportionately) hurts "the other side

I think what many societies have discovered in the past few years is, if a proposed authoritarian policy only (or just disproportionately) hurts "the other side", then half the country will abandon any principles they used to have so they can claim that it's actually a good policy to implement.