Like many Republicans before him, Trump and his administration talk about people as either good or bad. That’s a child’s concept, and a political tactic. Republican started the approach decades ago under Lee Atwater, but Trump took Atwater’s noxious toy and just ran with it. He frames almost every disagreement as combat between good and evil. This tactic isn’t just infantile nonsense; it corrupts any conversation it touches. The Republicans keep using it, Trump supercharged it, and it’s gotten so bad, they’ve damaged the accommodation and everyday empathy our society needs to survive.
Is there a struggle between good and evil? I suppose. Except for the part about there being good and bad people. You can’t split America into two opposing groups, one filled with goodness and light, and the other consumed with angry malice. (Although I’m sure someone will have brightly colored spandex costumes.) That’s childish nonsense. Reality is much harder. The line between good and evil runs through each of us, not around us. Most of the things we say and do are a balance of countering interests. It’s that nagging ‘free will’ problem. We make the best choices we can see. If I make two mostly good choices and one half-bad one, am I good or evil overall? It’s a silly question.
Grownups sadly understand that life is complicated. Sure, most of us remain the hero in our own stories, but that’s generally in retrospect. Before we get there, we have to work through some ugly choices. When do we choose charity over parsimony? What secrets do we hold close, and which do we tell? Who do we agree with, and how far will we go? Whose story do I believe, and who will I reject? The obvious stuff is easy, so we take care if it first. And then we’re stuck with all the rest, from “mostly clear” down to terrible choices among the lesser of many evils.
Politicians have been pretending to a false simplicity probably forever. It’s all easy, they shout. Our political opponents don’t just disagree with us. Any decent person would already see how naturally correct our position is, that guns are dangerous/a right, abortion is infanticide/essential, and the government should be smaller/more protective, and all the rest. “Anyone who doesn’t see that in absolute terms is morally deficient,” the bellowing goes on.
They lie to us because it works and because we let them. Most people struggle with these same questions. No, life isn’t that clear, it’s not easy, and so many choices include an element of bad stuff. I hate thinking about it. When someone promises easy answers (“Just follow me and everything will be grand!”), we know it’s a scam, but it’s still desirable. I feel it, too. I have a hard enough time finding the real ground truth, and when I do, there may not be any decent actions left.
It’s easy, too. Framing each electoral choice as a moral absolute has no downside, at least for the politician who does the framing. The fraying of our society only surfaces after their fingerprints have faded.
That’s why it’s such a corrupting influence. Not only is the whole concept wrong, framing it that way pushes us to act irrationally. Many people pointed that out that when President George W. Bush called Iran, Iraq and North Korea an “Axis of evil” back in 2002. I haven’t a clue if Bush said it that way on purpose. Maybe he only wanted something new and fancy-sounding. But the terms he chose mattered; using them changed his argument.
Dealing with antagonism is easier. When you oppose people, or they oppose you, you have options: fight back, run away, negotiate, wheel and deal, make alliances, compromise, punish, undercut, reward, and all the other tools of diplomacy. There’s room to use everything.
Evil is different. You don’t negotiate or compromise with evil. You don’t reward, negotiate, or ally yourself with the wicked. There is no maximum acceptable level of malevolence. The only defensible position toward evil is to destroy it. If you don’t root it out, evil will grow back to overwhelm you. It’s the nature of evil. If you’ve embodied evil in Bad Guys, then you, the presumed Good Guys, must annihilate those Bad Guys. All of them.
Tagging someone as Good is damaging in different ways. Once we’ve settled on someone as Good, we often raise them above suspicion, even when we should be asking more questions. “No one thought he might do that. He was such a good guy.” Child molesters, wife beaters, murderers, criminals, in every case, someone will say stuff like that. Once we’ve draped that mantle over someone’s shoulders, we mentally blink and start believing the press releases. We do it over and over.
So far, I’ve laid out what I see as a problem. Next up is where I put in my prescription for fixing it. Except I don’t have any.
Not that it’s impossible. The answer is for people to grow up. Adults know better. It’s a painful lesson, but until you recognize that people who aren’t you are still real and complicated people just like you, then you haven’t transitioned to an adult. Adults know there aren’t bad guys just like we know there isn’t a Santa Claus. Good and evil, and Bad Guys in general? They’re constructs; happy lies for improving behavior until we can manage the feat on our own. And Republicans are using that opening against us like a software hack.
One answer would be if we got smarter about political manipulation, but I don’t see that happening. I see us getting meaner and more pinched, that’s all. We’re not pulling together; we’re letting Republicans drag us apart. It’s hard enough finding the humanity in each other when its quiet, and we seem to have lost the existing traditions for learning empathy. Even our religious leaders have fallen, lost in their moral litmus tests. In the meantime, we’re stuck with national politics that infantilizes us. They’re working to freeze our thinking into the childish patterns that serve their corporate masters so well. The answer that works – the only solution I see – is for us to say ‘no’ to that nonsense.
I don’t know if we can fix this anymore. I feel like an old guy surrounded by angry children.
