Is basic professionalism really too much to expect from Congress?

If you are forcing a conservative like me to side with AOC, you are doing something wrong.

An exchange that happened in the middle of May is instructive in how our political culture has degraded, and why the American people need to have adults in charge of our government. Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked a witness for having "fake eyelashes," prompting a response from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC.

There can be criticism of AOC's response, but she was responding to Greene being a personally nasty and insulting someone's appearance. Had Greene been professional and disciplined - something that seems impossible for many "conservatives " these days - AOC would have had no need to respond. This is not a "both sides" thing. Greene was wrong. Conservatives need to hold our people, and especially our elected officials, to a higher standard.

Rather than apologize, Greene mocked AOC: "Are your feelings hurt? Awww." This shows how far too many "conservatives" think angering the other side constitutes a "win." But the reality is that being nasty is not the way to win. You may excite your most devoted followers, but persuadable voters are turned off and opposing voters are energized to vote against you. Argue policy, record and law, not allegedly fake eyelashes.

If you are forcing a conservative like me to side with AOC, you are doing something wrong. AOC was right to stand up against Greene and if we had a normal Republican Party, they would tell Greene to knock it off and be a professional. It was not that long ago - before 2015 - that we did have the vestiges of a normal Republican Party.

This, again, shows Donald Trump's poisonous influence on the Republican Party. It is one thing to brush aside or even defend Trump's bizarre outbursts and personal insults. It is another thing to embrace the same strategy, because not being personally nasty is "why we lose." Trump is who he is, but there is no reason the rest of the party needs to degrade itself along with him. Be the adults in the room. Where you should be uncompromising is policy and principles, not insults and mockery.