![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.novonon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20191012_usd000_06176795949459510231.jpg?resize=625%2C352&ssl=1\")
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The danger of such extreme right-wing partisanship is its endless capacity to turn standard political grudges\u2014against Democrats\u2019 hypocrisy on executive overreach, for example, or the media\u2019s liberal bias\u2014into an apologia for more egregious rule-breaking. Partisan Republicans accuse their opponents of doing the same thing, and offer examples to prove it. But just as the right has played an outsized role in driving partisanship generally (a dynamic termed \u201casymmetric polarisation\u201d), so its rule-breaking is more conspicuous and arguably worse. The Democrats\u2019 record on gerrymandering is dire; Republican attempts to suppress non-white voter turnout are a terrible stain. They also hint at a gloomily defensive apprehension, which has no counterpart on the ascendant left, that a Republican Party backed by a shrinking minority of mostly white voters cannot win power by fair means.<\/p>\n
It seems many Republican voters have already settled on that conclusion\u2014though they would put it slightly differently. Shortly after Mr Trump\u2019s election, two in three agreed with the statement that America needed a leader \u201cwilling to break some rules if that\u2019s what it takes to set things right.\u201d Mr Trump\u2019s current standing with his party suggests even more would agree with it now. When articles of impeachment against Mr Trump are presented to them, Republican senators will essentially be asked whether they do, too. Their answer will decide more than the president\u2019s fate. It will determine whether theirs is now the party of rule-breaking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n