Donald Trump has degraded the norms of American political civility so deeply, for so long, that it's easy to become numb to each offense. But he crossed a new line Wednesday, implying that the late Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., is in hell — by way of savaging Dingell's widow and successor, Rep. Debbie Dingell, for backing Trump's impeachment.

Is there no bottom for this president? That question has long since answered itself, but here's another: Is there no bottom for his party? Where is the outrage from the Dingells' Republican congressional colleagues? Where is the simple, crucial declaration from Trump's own side of the aisle that this is unacceptable behavior from a sitting president?

In today's polarized political landscape, many Republicans have convinced themselves that Trump's juvenile tendency to personally savage fellow Americans is just part and parcel of the ongoing battle between left and right. It's not.

This is a man who mocked the physical disability of one journalist, and suggested another was aggressive because she was menstruating. He denigrated the appearance of a female primary opponent and of the wife of a male one. He has belittled one dead war hero and the parents of another. He recently belittled 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg because she landed Time magazine's "person-of-the-year" designation instead of him.

There's nothing left-versus-right about any of this; it's all very clearly right versus wrong.

Yet what all these episodes have in common — apart from indicating a textbook personality disorder — is the roar of silence from most congressional Republicans in response. Trump has championed some (not all) policy priorities of his adopted party, and that apparently is reason enough for the once-proud promoters of "family values" to countenance behavior from the bully pulpit that none of them would tolerate at their dinner tables.

At a Michigan rally Wednesday, Trump, commenting on Debbie Dingell's support for impeachment, told the crowd that he'd given her family "A-plus treatment" after her husband died, and that Dingell had said her husband was "looking down" on that treatment with approval.

Trump then suggested: "Maybe he's looking up."

It's typically self-serving for Trump to assume that providing standard honorary treatment to a deceased congressman somehow entitles him to political fealty from the widow. But beyond that, what kind of person says this? It's not just unpresidential, it's behavior no one would expect from any adult.

Every time Trump sullies the national discourse like this, he makes America's already-contentious politics a little meaner. To confront that behavior doesn't require abandoning one's partisan principles. It just requires acknowledging higher ones.

A precious few congressional Republicans have said publicly that Trump should apologize. Most, though, have remained silent. Which speaks volumes about the state of their party today.

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