Hence the importance of precedents, which Democrats seem congenitally incapable of understanding. When Trump got his first divorce, amid all the scandal of him being exposed as fathering a child with his mistress, his ill-concealed political aspirations were assumed to be ended, and just a few years later, in the early days of Clinton's administration, there was a bloodbath of senior military officers over sexual impropriety and infidelity. And then came the rest of his term in office, and the Democrats refusing to convict a proven perjurer (whose own SCOTUS appointees boycotted his State of the Union Address for that reason) on a party-line vote, changing the standard to "it's not relevant to the duties of his office." All of a sudden, the dignity of the office was not too far out of the reach of Marla Maples' sugar daddy.

Barry O decided his transformative presidency was sufficient reason to blow off customary courtesies to the minority party and ramrod his agenda through, dismissing objections with the assertion that "elections have consequences." And then the Republicans promptly win three straight Congresses and decide that fuck the tradition of letting a (Democratic) President appoint whom he wants to the Supreme Court, their election has consequences too, and since the people of the nation gave them the House of Congress with advise and consent on appointments, they had a perfect right to tell the Obamessiah "No thanks, we'll leave that to the next president, not a lame duck who will be out of office in a year." And the Democrats and their media shills acted like this was a grave violation of sacred principles (when they weren't chortling at the stupidity of the GOP for putting the choice in the hands of Hilary Clinton - funny how no one back then seemed to mind the prospect of a vengeful new President making appointments who were utterly antithetical to the opposing party).

We have seen similar things with the Democrats discarding numerous other customs and courtesies or just doing whatever they are legally allowed, no matter how it has been seen as unchivalrous in the past, in cases like the nuclear option and filibuster or contesting settled elections or violently demonstrating against a new President, or Presidential candidates refraining from accusing their opponents of lying (Barry again: even Bill "did not have sex with that woman" Clinton, Al "invented the internet" Gore, Ronald "win one for the Gipper" Reagan, George W "does not go abroad looking for monsters to destroy" Bush, & George HW "read my lips" Bush did not break this custom or be so accused by their opponents) only to recall them with feigned devotion when the Republicans get their turn on the other side of the glory hole.