On the obvious – Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Steve Eder in NYT

‘Even so, several political scientists say that the factionalism is alarming because it makes compromise harder and normalizes such rhetoric throughout the population. Messages are particularly pernicious if they claim that political parties hate the United States, are in league with its enemies or cheat to win elections, the experts said.
“The Leftists, who are authoritarians with a DNA that leans toward tyranny, believe that loading up the nation with unskilled workers from underdeveloped nations will provide Democrats with voters,” Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican objector from Arizona, wrote in an email in March 2021.
“Democrats are so enamored of power that they want to legalize cheating in elections,” he added.
On Twitter, objectors described liberals or Democrats as hating America or Americans more than 40 times during this congressional term. Other Republicans used those phrases twice, while one Democrat, Representative Eric Swalwell of California, did so three times.’

Read the article here.

The US is not unique on this matter, similar trends can be seen in many other countries, for example The Netherlands.

There is nothing beyond the spectacle, those who criticize the spectacle have organized their own spectacles. All this has been described already by many, to name just one Jacques Rancière.

Democracy is theater, it cannot be anything else, but the spectacle has no limits, it is worse than pulp fiction, it has nothing to offer but arousal, provoked by the promise of violence.