Each side has tended to be more and more accepting of escalating misbehavior by their own team - justified by the blatant transgressions of theit enemy. It is clear that principle doesn't enter into it when someone regularly fails to call out their own tribe for the same kind of wrongdoing they pretend offense about when their opponents do it, it is clearly not a principled position.
Dan Rather didn't complain about political decorum when it was directed against Trump, but now it suddenly is different because ... reasons. I have family who in 2016 stormed into Thanksgiving calling all Trump voters at the table idiots but immediately following the 2020 election were demanding everyone come together in unity as though no one had a 4 year long memory.
Neither side polices their own and neither side has the moral standing to criticize the other. Yes, I am as guilty as Dan Rather about this. It was like pulling teeth to get me to criticize even the blatantly criminal actions of the Jan 6 rioters because we'd been faced with months and months of nonstop rioting and violence that the left excused and justified at every turn.
I have no idea how to reduce the whataboutism used to justify whatever contumely "our side" is reveling in. Continuing to excuse misconduct because someone else was immoral just keeps the downward spiral going and damages our country On the other hand, unilaterally calling out "my team" feels like supporting the lie that the "other team" are morally superior and is immediately seized upon to prove that everything I believe is wrong.
