WASHINGTON — There’s a lot of talk in Washington these days about whether that quaint politeness known as “civility” is possible — or even desirable — among the nation’s political combatants.

Lots of Americans got riled up over Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. Party leaders are busy branding opponents as “mobs” gone mad, and worse. Then there is President Donald Trump, an innovator in the field of talking smack, trying to energize his supporters for the Nov. 6 congressional elections.

It’s not likely to get better soon, with both parties straining for control of Congress on Election Day.

A look at the conversations about talk:

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THE LEADER

Trump kicked off his presidential campaign in 2015 by saying many Mexicans are rapists and murderers. He scorned his Republican challengers as “lyin’,” ”little” and “low-energy.” He called women ugly, hysterical, even “a dog.”

Critics hated his approach, but it can be effective. After all, as Trump reminds everyone, he won.

Now, the president is back at it in the afterglow of Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court approval, calling confirmation opponents an “angry mob” of Democrats, some of them plain “evil.”

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MORE THAN MEAN TALK?

Democrats are advocating getting tougher on the campaign trail — some say, too tough.

Republicans are circulating video of Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, issuing a new take on Michelle Obama’s mantra, “When they go low, we go high.”

“No,” Holder says in the video, reportedly shot at an event in Georgia. “When they go low, we kick them. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.”

Published reports say Holder later added that he’s not advocating doing anything inappropriate or illegal.

Trump said Thursday on Fox News Channel that such talk is “very dangerous,” even though the president as a candidate advocated for security to throw out protesters at his rallies, including “on a stretcher.”

Senators, Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, have received threats. A year ago, a man shot up a GOP baseball practice and badly wounded Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. In 2011, a gunman shot then-Rep. Gabrielle Gifford, D-Ariz., in the head and critically wounded her.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado said his own wife received a text message showing “a graphic beheading.”

“It’s time we step back from that brink,” he said.

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LAMENTING CIVILITY’S LOSS

Not all fellow Republicans think the spread of this kind of talk is a good thing.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has long tsk-tsked the president’s incendiary style, said this week: “There is a lot of division in the country today and it’s coming from both sides — and it is disheartening.” The Wisconsin Republican, who is retiring after this year, says the economic and security anxieties that many Americans face give oxygen to the polarizing, and action to somehow reduce those stresses might help restore more productive conversations.

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DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH

Hillary Clinton says Democrats have to be even tougher.

“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about,” she said on CNN. “That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.”

She likened the rhetoric during Kavanaugh’s consideration to other Republican attacks including “what they did to me for 25 years” as first lady, senator from New York, secretary of state and presidential candidate. Two years after Trump’s victory, she notes, he still routinely brings her up, calling her “Crooked Hillary.”

“You can be civil but you can’t overcome what they intend to do unless you win elections,” she said. Republicans are driven by “the lust for power.”

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LOOK WHO’S TALKING

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the incivility is mostly coming from Democrats.

“When you have the last presidential nominee for president saying incivility should continue until the Democrats win the House, for goodness sake, I think we know who the culprits are here when it comes to the quality of discourse in the country, and it’s not coming from the Republican side of the aisle.”

But what about Trump?

“It’s not my job to do a routine sort of daily critique of the president’s observations, and I speak up when I think it’s necessary,” he said. “He’s a unique politician, there’s no question about that.”

Besides, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, “We’re not here to have fun. It’s OK to have big fights once in a while.”

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway delivered a short form master class Wednesday on how to hit back without raising your voice.

Going after Clinton on Fox News Channel, Conway said, “Usually when she opens her mouth, respectfully, she offends at least one half of the country.”

“It’s one thing to call us deplorable, irredeemable, laugh at people who don’t have all the privileges that she has had with her Ivy League law degree and through her marriage to a much more popular man who actually was a two-term president that she’ll never be,” Conway said.

And, while Trump campaigns for Republican candidates, “I don’t see all these Democratic candidates banging down Hillary Clinton’s door asking her to lock arms.”

Actually, Clinton will campaign soon on behalf of Florida gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Gillum.

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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram and Juana Summers contributed to this report.