Hillary Clinton is not helping.

The former secretary of state and presidential candidate called for a national divorce in a recent interview with CNN. Well, she didn’t go that far, but she came close enough.

[Also read: Bill, Hillary Clinton launch 13-city tour, command hundreds of dollars per seat]



Hillary Clinton: "You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for" https://t.co/8QI5BoEN6t pic.twitter.com/P04am7WREQ — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 9, 2018

"You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about," Clinton said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "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. But until then, the only thing that the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength."

Forget civility, Clinton seems to say. That only comes when Democrats control Congress. From here, it is just a short skip and a hop to the "no justice, no peace" chant shrieked by mobs on college campuses and extremist thugs on the streets of Portland. It is a license for bad behavior, and it is dangerous.

So much has been said about the damage that President Trump has done to our institutions. The criticism is valid. He is the poster child of incivility. He should talk less and be better, to be sure.

But even Trump has never called for the divorce that Clinton just prescribed.

Former President Barack Obama reminded us in his farewell address that change comes from grabbing a clipboard, gathering signatures, and getting likeminded people elected to office. It was a pitch predicated on working inside the system and, yes, working with the opposition, realizing that congressional minorities and majorities are fleeting. Being "With Her" means turning away from all of that.

Never mind that, aside from semiregular, overblown rhetoric coming from the Oval Office, Republicans are pretty much the same as they were when Obama was president.

Warnings about social conservative engineering never came true. With control of both chambers and the White House, the best the party of Lincoln can do is cut some taxes and confirm some judicial nominees. Otherwise, Trump has been bogged down in Congress, checked by the courts, and dogged by the press.

And that is how all of this is supposed to work. Political minorities bide their time, knowing that later they will reap what they sow when they become the majority. This incentivized civility is a precondition for self-government. Clinton just joined the likes of Rep. Maxine Waters, R-Calif., and the #Resistance. She further jeopardizes the whole system.