I think looking at Republican Party financing could help. There are big “donors” for both parties, but the parties treat them differently, I think.
The ‘Rat party lets donors pay in huge sums, but when a party line vote comes up, the office holder has to toe the party line or they withhold party funding, etc, at the next election.
The Pubbies say, oh, you voted against the party? That’s OK, we still love you. Here’s money from WinRed and we’ll support you with publicity, etc. Ronna McDaniel needs to go, instantly.
That would at least counterbalance a bit the big donor bribes, er, donations.
Of course, having secret ‘Rats, like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell as party leaders doesn’t help. They should be willing, like the ‘Rat party leaders, to tell wayward members to vote right or lose committee memberships, etc. When the party leadership are squishes or worse, there is no penalty at all for betrayal.
The thing that will actually change the way things are is an educated public that gets out and meets their neighbors for normal sorts of things like bake sales instead of bonding over protest marches. People don’t need to just get together to all get mad together. They need to learn to cooperate together to get things done that are worth doing.
If people are approaching the task in a spirit of cooperation to get things done, they will learn without balkanizing. The way the Democrats are doing this isn’t good either because everyone ends up bonding over being mad.
I guess the difference is that the Republicans trade off of making the voters feel helpless rage, while the Democrats get them all angry and then point them at an outlet for their anger.
It would be better to rebuild civic engagement around common ground than making everyone hate each other.