Is the liberal call to civility a higher consciousness move in the hopes of "if they go low, we go high" or is it an egoic desire to save face and maintain an image of moral superiority.  I have been binging on Vaush lately and I believe that he has a point on how a principled failure isn't worth anything. In this video he talks about how some progressives don't want to vote for Biden because they believe that Biden is as bad as Trump and how this is a failure to play the political game (especially around the 14 minute mark) Also in other videos he talks about how democrats wanting to take the high ground and go according to democratic processes is a weakness that the conservatives take advantage of because conservatives don't care about hurting people's feelings or the democratic process as one can see with voter suppression, supporting Trump's fascist tendencies etc. Instead, they are out looking for power which is what the political game boils down to in the end. I do agree to this to some extent because if you are confronted with a bully who is trying to rip you to shreds, literally or figuratively, coming to them and being like "oh but we can work this out, lets see what kinds of solutions we can come up with" is going to look like weakness to someone who seeks domination rather than peace. Maybe calls to civility would have worked back when Romney or McCain were running but that goes out the window with Trump.  I do believe that Biden should have gone harder on Trump though I empathize his reluctance to do so when you are faced face to face with someone like Trump. However, I also think his more civil way of doing things rather than going in and trying to dominate the debate makes him look more sane next to Trump and  therefore more appealing to moderate viewers so I can see how that can also be a strategy.  What do yall think?