Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has this to say about the GOP:
“The Republicans want us to repeal the 20th century, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, to turn us back to the robber barons running the country, and to eviscerate the environmental and other regulations to protect public health and safety”.
This is derisive caricature. Obviously, Republicans support different policies on taxes and regulations than Democrats (such as Waxman) support. But it’s distortion and name-calling to say that they want to send us back to the 19th century and create some sort of crony capitalist oligarchy where there are no laws whatsoever protecting public health or the environment.
We could (and, some people do) caricature Democrats like Waxman the same way, by saying that they want to destroy the private sector entirely and institute communism. But that would simply be demonizing in the other direction.
If Waxman doesn’t want to be demonized by Republicans, he should set a good example and not demonize them, either. Retaliation in kind is not always the best policy.