I'll take the other stance. The GOP is not pushing back against Maxine Waters because they believe they are being treated unfairly (although that's what they want their base to think). They're pushing back because she's standing in their way of normalizing their behavior.
I think the Democratic party should stand up and say, "you're damned right we are using authoritarian tactics against you. You cannot be reasoned with and you cannot be bothered to hold yourself to any moral standard whatsoever. There's no stopping authoritarians except by force." The right will interpret this as fascism, and they'll portray the left as hypocrites. But guess what? Hitler had to be forcibly removed from power by an invading army. That's fundamentally an authoritarian act. What's the saying about diamonds? Only diamonds are strong enough to cut diamonds?
It's natural to be scared such posturing could trigger an escalation, and that eventually enough escalation could lead to civil war. But we're losing the peace, so war may be inevitable whether we like it or not. The inevitability of conflict has got nothing to do with the response of the Democrats, it has everything to do with the GOP. They're the ones setting fire to this country.
The consequences of the GOP continuing its present course must either be a fight, or a capitulation. Compromise should be off the table. Look at Trump trotting out an irrelevant Obama era ruling as justification for detaining children, and then claiming the Democrats must compromise on building the wall in order to resolve the issue. You can't compromise with the GOP today, because they've weaponized compromise.