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On Tuesday, amid President Joe Biden's press conference on efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump Jr. tried to mock him on Twitter, suggesting that he was struggling to speak.

But the attack didn't go the way that he might have hoped. Swarms of commenters on social media flooded his mentions with clips and quotes from his father stumbling and bumbling through press conferences, often garbling his comments to the point of near unintelligibility — including his excessive slurring, his discussion of "Yo-Semites" National Park, and his inability to pronounce words like "coronavirus" or "contingency."

The covid pandemic should have revealed to us how hard it is doing democracy. The plague could be over by now had everyone agreed it's bad, had everyone agreed masks are good and had everyone agreed vaccines are the road of the righteous to liberation. While consensus is always difficult to achieve in any democracy, the radicalization of one of two major parties, such that it's more like a separatist movement than a legitimate bargaining partner, has meant consensus has become nearly impossible.

But the covid pandemic should have revealed something else, something related to how hard it is doing democracy. When one of two major parties is willing to hurt itself in order to achieve its objectives, that party is always going to have a political advantage over the other. Mutual benefit and trust are impossible when betrayal is optional. Put another way, having a political advantage over the other party is important enough that the Republicans will gladly hurt themselves. This is so important it will move heaven and earth so it does not appear to be suicidal but instead honorable—so self-harm doesn't look like masochism but instead freedom.

The director of Pray Away, a new Netflix documentary about the so-called "ex-gay" therapy movement, says that contrary to popular belief, the dangerous, deadly practice of attempting to change people's sexual orientation or gender identity is alive and well. In fact, despite the shuttering of prominent organizations like Exodus International, the ex-gay movement appears to be growing as conservatives dig in their heels against "woke" and "inclusive" culture.

Although numerous states have banned ex-gay therapy, those laws typically apply only to licensed mental health professionals whose clients are minors, and not to religious practitioners who may be protected by the First Amendment.