Today, we got news of a long-over due active resistance to some of the Trump administration’s malevolent machinations; to sum, outgoing EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler is putting in a new process that cements formally easily changed rules in a way that takes years to overturn and EPA staff is actively resisting the change in various, material ways.

Why does this matter? Narrowly, the collective effort to stymie climate change and adapt to its most harmful effects is generational work, upon which hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable depend upon. Active delays to this work could make some changes irreversible in our lifetimes. Through their efforts, good faith EPA staff are giving the incoming Biden administration the tools necessary to quickly overturn Trump era policy, right the ship, and continue in earnest good environmental policy.

Broadly, it speaks to one of the fundamental disparities between the two dominant political parties, and a Gordian knot that is incredibly difficult to solve. From Ford’s pardon of Nixon, Reagan and Bush’s pardons of their administration’s criminal involvement in the Iran-Contra illegal weapons sale, George W. Bush’s Torture Memos, and now the litany of the Trump administration’s law and norm-breaking behaviors, it’s clear that the Republican Party believes in laws, norms, and processes so long as they derive benefit, ignore them when convenient, and weaponize them when possible. The Democratic Party simply has not shown a willingness to do the same, to the same extent, to the same ends.

And in this example we see this behavior played out in miniature, in boring, high-stakes plays. The Trump administration has no problem circumventing processes and norms; for one quick example, the amount of illegal acting heads of agencies and senior administration officials. However, they know Democrats believe in following process and norms as a fundamental part of who they are.

Wheeler is changing the rules to make it more difficult to use research that does not expose the personal data of people who volunteered as subjects of said research. As a followup, he is also changing the rules to make changing this, and other Trump administration guidance, subject to years of review before being able to change it. These are bad-faith actions that aim to hamstring an incoming administration.

We see this elsewhere, too. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is attempting to move $455 billion out of the Biden administration’s reach and into the purview of Congress, gambling that Republicans retain control of the Senate, and limiting the Biden administration’s options for coronavirus relief measures.

The Democrats are presented with two obvious solutions, each with serious drawbacks. Option one: they hew to norms and laws in an attempt to preserve those norms and laws, but steadily lose real political power as Republicans ignore those norms and laws. As a consequence, norms and laws are eroded. Option two: Democrats go blow for blow, in an escalating arms race of who is willing to gain political power the fastest. The stakes here are high. Democrats would have to gamble on winning enough political power for long enough to step back from the brink and restore the norms and laws they forsook as a part of this option. It’d require a fundamental realignment of incentives in our governing structures.

A tall order. Additionally, a loss would mean empowering the Republican Party, and providing them with the concrete evidence they’d need to justify further, extreme measures.

The most effective way to solve this is likely a combination of the two, and it will require a brute use of political power akin to what McConnell has practiced over the past 6 years in the Senate. If something is not explicitly a law, and is merely a norm that requires at least two parties working in good faith with common goals, it should be ignored. This is, unfortunately, where we stand today. It was made abundantly clear during the Obama administration that the Republican Party would not negotiate in good faith with Democrats. For examples, look to Republicans voting against the Affordable Care Act that included provisions they asked for, and was based on a plan devised by the conservative Heritage Foundation and implemented by then-Governor Mitt Romney. For an even more brazen example, look to McConnell’s vote against a bill that he himself introduced, and Obama then supported. Republicans will not support anything that will be construed as a victory for Democrats, even if it is for the good of the country.

For contrast, look to Democrats voting for an economic stimulus bill during the pandemic, prior to the election. This would have been politically advantageous for Trump. He would have been seen as a dealmaker, and provided direct economic relief to hundreds of thousands of voters. This is an admirable action by the Democrats, and morally the right thing to do.

In the coming two years, Democrats will have to steel themselves against the empty bellows of Republican leadership and caterwauling of prominent media figures, and forgo norms, for the good of the country. No one will cheer the Democrats for drowning with the country while insisting on holding on to the rulebook for good manners with both hands.