From lame-duck lawmakers, hardball politics or undermining of democracy?

US politics is based on many standard practices that aren’t explicitly outlined in the US Constitution or the nation’s laws. Of these norms, two stand out as crucial to a functioning democracy, according to Harvard government professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt: mutual toleration and institutional forbearance.

“Mutual toleration” means treating political opponents as rivals on a field of competition, not enemies to be crushed. “Institutional forbearance” means restraint in use of power. Don’t test the limits of the law, or obviously violate its spirit.

Are GOP lawmakers on track to break these norms in key Midwestern states? Democrats won