This is what I've said before and will say it again, both the Democratic and Republican parties are playing good cop/bad cop, respectively. They both take marching orders from their corporate donors to do a hot and cold game; to make people intimidated with the cold attitude, while the hot attitude makes the voters think "well, they're not so bad after all." It's like a domestic abuse victim being psychologically manipulated by narcissistic, Machiavellian psychopathic partner by making us think "my partner hurts me sometimes, but at time he loves me. He's not so bad."