If the search engine is accurate, COTTonLINE has never once cited the work of New York Times columnist David French, in nearly 20 years of observing our nation’s geopolitical scene. The likely reason is that we’ve mostly disagreed with his views.
Today we remedy that shortcoming, citing this archived column (not behind NYT paywall). He writes with sadness about the degree of polarization in our political life, finding abundant hate on both sides. He correctly identifies Trump as a result of this hate, not its cause - an insight not original to French but accurate nevertheless.
He identifies the problem, sketches its magnitude and notes its uniqueness with some skill. What he does not do is map a path away from our current “hate-arama” To be fair to him, I am not at all certain such a path exists.
One of the sometimes embarrassing aspects of human nature is the energizing aspects of hating enemies, real and imagined. In our “red in tooth and claw” history, it helped us to become the landside apex predator of this planet, a distinction very much still accurate. Carried over into politics it is obviously a mixed blessing.
We tease this trait with sports and school rivalries, and these sometimes boil over into on-field riots. Hate provides a boost in war-fighting situations, with which our history is replete. Politically, it is very likely helped by the increasingly multicultural nature of our decreasingly acculturated populace.
We have to hope the checks and balances built into our system by our prescient founders are up to the task of holding the polity together. And, as often noted, “hope” isn’t much of a plan.
