This is also why the Dem leadership keeps saying shit like “we need a strong Republican Party” while activists, pundits, and even other Democrat officials argue (with good reason) that the GOP is a threat to democracy. If there are only two viable political parties, and one of them isn’t a legitimate choice because they threaten to undermine the entire thing, then the damage is already done. There’s no democracy to save.

People like Biden and Pelosi, who are actually in charge, can’t imply that the GOP isn’t a legitimate political party because then they’d have to admit that the entire system is illegitimate, which calls into question their legitimacy. On top of that, they would then have a duty (at least notionally) to fix the system.

The GOP, in being so blatant in their attempt to nakedly wield power without even a nod to what little democratic process does exist, is forcing the Democrats into an untenable position: either defend their own opponents as good faith actors despite the increasingly obvious reality that they aren’t, or actually govern. Since the latter is their nightmare scenario, they’ll keep doing the former until the GOP is in power again, at which point they can go back to pretending they want to be in charge.