You're right, perhaps I phrased that poorly. What I meant was that it's par for the course for the reactionary US political party. Definitely a bad thing
From my perspective the Republicans are the reactionary party and the Democrats are the conservative party. It's just how far the Overton window has shifted. However I do agree that their actions do a lot to harm citizens and the country, more so than D or at least more blatantly and overtly. It's wild how they claim to be the about freedom then do everything they can to restrict it, especially with speech
as a foreigner with some interest in US history it does seem like Republicans are going back to their early philosophy of Republicanism, which is basically the moral and political framework of the USA circa the time of abolition, where as Democrats have adopted a postmodern European worldview
these two worldviews differ very significantly and are in a very deep conflict, and by definition the euro-postmodern view is a lot more comfortable in bureaucracy and the currently much bigger (Federal-) State, is much better at it, and effectively controls it at all levels
this renders Republicans into a reactionary party, especially as the growing trend within it abandons neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism
Democrats look a lot like the old Whig party which existed both sides of the Atlantic but was out of step with the prevailing culture; they also look a lot more like a modern British mainstream party than any major US party has looked before, which IMO it's not a good thing, but European politicians love it
They're, at large, interested in conserving the structures of capitalism. They make an effort to seem progressive but continuously fail to make any meaningful changes to the systems in the US that have harmed people and have kept people in poverty for generations. They're generally in the pockets of capitalists and don't care about worker rights. There may be a couple exceptions but the democratic party in general is conservative
