Every summer for quite a while now the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have set their differences aside for one afternoon and played a game of softball. It’s a relatively meaningless, harmless distraction, but it reminds everyone that there is a life beyond the daily grind of the beltway. Unfortunately, it won’t be happening this year. The DNC just announced that they won’t be attending because they are apparently “too busy” to make time for the game. (Daily Caller)

Despite being a time-honored tradition going back many years, the DNC is refusing to play the RNC at this year’s annual softball game.

RNC sources tell The Daily Caller that they were “stunned” when Democrats abruptly pulled out of the good-natured game between leadership and staffers at opposing political organizations…

RNC sources familiar with the decision said the DNC told them that “all our players are out in the field this year. We won’t be able to play.”

As the Washington Examiner noted, the softball game is usually followed by another tradition. Players from both parties typically head out to a local watering hole for a couple of drinks and the chance to just socialize. A lesson I learned from my Dad when I was younger is that many a difference of opinion has been settled over a cold beer when arguments in the office aren’t getting you anywhere.

In the larger scheme of things, this really isn’t any sort of disaster that’s going to shut down Congress. The event is, after all, completely unofficial and nothing more than a pleasant tradition. But despite the lack of additional comment from the DNC it’s not hard to see what’s going on here. The excuse about everyone being “out in the field” and unavailable to play simply doesn’t hold water. They managed to field a team in 2016 which was one of the most hotly contested elections in memory. They obviously could have gotten a dozen or so folks together for this game.

What’s far more likely is that the divisiveness inside the Democratic Party has reached the point where members of their increasingly socialist base are harboring such seething hatred for the other party that they will use a photograph of any Democrat daring to play softball with a Republican against them. If that’s the actual state of affairs, then the DNC is no longer seeing the political spectrum as two groups with different ideological agendas but who share a common desire for the success of America. This is now war and the other party is “the enemy.”

On the plus side, the RNC can still have an intramural game if they like and they can keep all the beer for themselves.