You know how it is when toddlers get tired. They get cranky. They cry, pout, and sometimes even try to hold their breath until they turn blue if they don't get their way. When this happens, you know it's time to give them a bottle and put them to bed. Later, there can be the problem of handling an unruly teenager, defiant and hostile, challenging every rule and refusing to acknowledge any authority. Sometimes it's enough to take away the car keys and ground them for a while. In other cases, intense therapy or even military school, as in the case of young Donald Trump, is seen as the only way to get through to them.
But what do you do when adult elected officials suddenly start behaving like screaming toddlers and teenage bullies in the halls of Congress? Is there any authority that can step in and quiet the tantrums? And when this increasingly anti-social behavior is happening in the shadow of a party leader and presidential candidate who exalts violence and cruelty, can we really just chalk it up to frustration and fatigue?
