This piece ran on both Daily Kos and in the Virginia newspapers in January 2026.
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It has been widely noted that Trump’s form of leadership includes his being the Divider-in-Chief. There is NOTHING that comes up, as an issue for America to deal with, that Trump acts to bring us all together. Instead, he finds a way to make each issue something for “his people” and “their enemies” to fight over.
But nowhere has Trump divided us more profoundly than in how Americans feel about HIM: while one big part of the American population is fervent in its devotion to him, another big part feels an equally EXTREME revulsion about that man, whom they see running roughshod over everything they value.
This division over Trump is far more profound than some different views of some celebrity they love or loathe. Because Trump has made himself the embodiment of a whole constellation of value-choices, the division over support for or opposition to him reflects fundamentally opposing moral judgments about how America should be.
Trump continually puts stark choices before the American people, which means being for or against Trump signifies being for or against a whole cavalcade of basic values and directions for the country. For example:
Being FOR TRUMP means being for siding with Putin over Ukraine, with all the basic American values attached to THAT choice.
Being AGAINST TRUMP means being outraged that the President would use the military to subdue the cities governed by the opposing party.
Being FOR TRUMP means appreciating how Trump vilifies vulnerable people and victimizes them.
Being AGAINST TRUMP means being appalled at the way Trump is not only failing to deal with the climate crisis but is actively dismantling the efforts previously made.
BEING FOR TRUMP means approving the way Trump has been using the Department of Justice as a weapon against his enemies.
BEING AGAINST TRUMP means hating the domineering spirit of a President who bullies into submission large corporations, major media, and universities just to compel them to appease him and submit to his will.
Acrossissue after issue, Trump forces Americans to take sides on matters thatprevious generations would have seen as morally settled. These divisions don’talign with traditional divisions between liberals and conservatives. Indeed,previous generations of Americans would have almost uniformly agreed that eachinstance aligns with a traditional American concept of Good and Evil.
In every instance — whether it be the state of our democracy, or the distribution of wealth, or the protection of Life-on-Earth from too much devastation from industrial civilization’s having disrupted the earth’s climate, or whether our politics will be about Americans cooperating to achieve our common purposes or be in continual conflict, or any of the other myriad issues that divide Americans — Trump represents a way of making the human world worse.
Across issue after issue, Trump forces Americans to take sides on matters that previous generations would have seen as morally settled. These divisions don’t align with traditional divisions between liberals and conservatives. Indeed, previous generations of Americans would have almost uniformly agreed that each instance aligns with a traditional American concept of Good and Evil.
In every instance — whether it be the state of our democracy, the distribution of wealth, the protection of Life on Earth from climate devastation, or whether our politics will be cooperative or continually conflictual — Trump represents a way of making the human world worse.
Which means that Trump can be described as functioning as a one-man “coherent force that consistently works to make the human world more broken.” And such a force is recognizable as corresponding deeply with how Western civilization has traditionally understood “Evil” as operating.
But as clear as that is — using the law as a weapon, siding with the fascist aggressor in Ukraine, etc. — there are a great many Americans, who would never consciously choose Evil, who are supporting Trump — and thus ALL HE REPRESENTS.
So the division over Trump is not just about HIM, but signifies a division in America over what’s Good and what’s Evil. And divisions don’t go any deeper than that.
The health of a democracy depends on the ability of THE PEOPLE to choose – collectively — representatives who will work – together — to move the nation forward well. So if a Force wanted a political movement to be able to prevent constructive cooperation, it could do no better than divide people on the question of Good and Evil.
Such a Force could achieve THAT, by persuading one side that IT is Good, even while consistently attacking things in the world that are Good (like the Rule of Law), with its consistently ugly conduct, evoking in the other part of the nation intense fear and revulsion and hatred.
Donald Trump is a Great Champion for a Force that one can see operating in the human world, that prefers hate to love, war to peace, domination to justice, cruelty to kindness. He has probably inflicted greater Brokenness onto America than any other single individual in our history. And one of the wounds in the American Body Politic is that the people got divided over a leader, which represented a division over Good and Evil.
How can the nation come back to health as a democracy from this place we find ourselves in: where the two sides disagree in a battle between Good and Evil? How do we get back to a place of shared values as Americans, and a desire to work together to achieve our COMMON purposes?
The SPIRITUAL DISEASE this situation represents within the Soul of America took a generation to develop. It may take a generation to altogether come back from such a perversion of people’s political posture that reached the point where Good People Chose Evil.
It may seem that there’s nothing new to say about Trump: he’s been doing so many remarkable things for so long that everything seems to have been remarked upon. But while we may already have said what needs to be said about Trump himself, we have only begun to reckon with what it means about America that such a figure has emerged as the dominant political force of our times.
The problem this leaves us with is stark. A democracy depends on a people sharing enough moral ground to work together for the common good. But what happens when citizens are divided over something as fundamental as what is good and what is evil?
How can a people divided by THAT disagreement re-discover enough shared values that they can work together to achieve common purposes?
A final hopeful note: Truth be told, I believe that the deep division over Good and Evil is only partial, and may prove largely situational. Beneath that dark divide may reside a reservoir of shared values — of fairness, decency, and caring — which might again be tapped into in a future America.
A Mind-Blowing Collaboration Between a Human and an AI
My Op/Ed Messages
Andy Schmookler’s Podcast Interviews
The American Crisis, and a Secular Understanding of the Battle Between Good and Evil
None So Blind – Blog 2005-2011 on the rising threat to American Democracy
How the Market Economy Itself Shapes Our Destiny
The Sacred Space of Lovers
The River and Its Channel: Bottom-Up (Flow) and Top-Down (Control) in Fostering the Good
Ongoing Commentary to Illuminate the American Crisis
What’s True About Meaning and Value
Andy’s YouTube Channel
The Fateful Step
How the Ugliness of Civilized History is not Human Nature Writ Large
Major Relevant Essays
Healing the Wounds, Inflicted by the Reign of Power, that Drive Us to War
Our Life-Serving Inborn Experiential Tendencies
A Quest to Bridge America’s Moral Divide – 1999
The Heirloom Project
Knowing What’s Right to do Is Not a No-Brainer
How the Division Over Trump Represents a Rupture in the Soul of America
This piece ran on both Daily Kos and in the Virginia newspapers in January 2026.
********************************
It has been widely noted that Trump’s form of leadership includes his being the Divider-in-Chief. There is NOTHING that comes up, as an issue for America to deal with, that Trump acts to bring us all together. Instead, he finds a way to make each issue something for “his people” and “their enemies” to fight over.
But nowhere has Trump divided us more profoundly than in how Americans feel about HIM: while one big part of the American population is fervent in its devotion to him, another big part feels an equally EXTREME revulsion about that man, whom they see running roughshod over everything they value.
This division over Trump is far more profound than some different views of some celebrity they love or loathe. Because Trump has made himself the embodiment of a whole constellation of value-choices, the division over support for or opposition to him reflects fundamentally opposing moral judgments about how America should be.
Trump continually puts stark choices before the American people, which means being for or against Trump signifies being for or against a whole cavalcade of basic values and directions for the country. For example:
Being FOR TRUMP means being for siding with Putin over Ukraine, with all the basic American values attached to THAT choice.
Being AGAINST TRUMP means being outraged that the President would use the military to subdue the cities governed by the opposing party.
Being FOR TRUMP means appreciating how Trump vilifies vulnerable people and victimizes them.
Being AGAINST TRUMP means being appalled at the way Trump is not only failing to deal with the climate crisis but is actively dismantling the efforts previously made.
BEING FOR TRUMP means approving the way Trump has been using the Department of Justice as a weapon against his enemies.
BEING AGAINST TRUMP means hating the domineering spirit of a President who bullies into submission large corporations, major media, and universities just to compel them to appease him and submit to his will.
Acrossissue after issue, Trump forces Americans to take sides on matters thatprevious generations would have seen as morally settled. These divisions don’talign with traditional divisions between liberals and conservatives. Indeed,previous generations of Americans would have almost uniformly agreed that eachinstance aligns with a traditional American concept of Good and Evil.
In every instance — whether it be the state of our democracy, or the distribution of wealth, or the protection of Life-on-Earth from too much devastation from industrial civilization’s having disrupted the earth’s climate, or whether our politics will be about Americans cooperating to achieve our common purposes or be in continual conflict, or any of the other myriad issues that divide Americans — Trump represents a way of making the human world worse.
Across issue after issue, Trump forces Americans to take sides on matters that previous generations would have seen as morally settled. These divisions don’t align with traditional divisions between liberals and conservatives. Indeed, previous generations of Americans would have almost uniformly agreed that each instance aligns with a traditional American concept of Good and Evil.
In every instance — whether it be the state of our democracy, the distribution of wealth, the protection of Life on Earth from climate devastation, or whether our politics will be cooperative or continually conflictual — Trump represents a way of making the human world worse.
Which means that Trump can be described as functioning as a one-man “coherent force that consistently works to make the human world more broken.” And such a force is recognizable as corresponding deeply with how Western civilization has traditionally understood “Evil” as operating.
But as clear as that is — using the law as a weapon, siding with the fascist aggressor in Ukraine, etc. — there are a great many Americans, who would never consciously choose Evil, who are supporting Trump — and thus ALL HE REPRESENTS.
So the division over Trump is not just about HIM, but signifies a division in America over what’s Good and what’s Evil. And divisions don’t go any deeper than that.
The health of a democracy depends on the ability of THE PEOPLE to choose – collectively — representatives who will work – together — to move the nation forward well. So if a Force wanted a political movement to be able to prevent constructive cooperation, it could do no better than divide people on the question of Good and Evil.
Such a Force could achieve THAT, by persuading one side that IT is Good, even while consistently attacking things in the world that are Good (like the Rule of Law), with its consistently ugly conduct, evoking in the other part of the nation intense fear and revulsion and hatred.
Donald Trump is a Great Champion for a Force that one can see operating in the human world, that prefers hate to love, war to peace, domination to justice, cruelty to kindness. He has probably inflicted greater Brokenness onto America than any other single individual in our history. And one of the wounds in the American Body Politic is that the people got divided over a leader, which represented a division over Good and Evil.
How can the nation come back to health as a democracy from this place we find ourselves in: where the two sides disagree in a battle between Good and Evil? How do we get back to a place of shared values as Americans, and a desire to work together to achieve our COMMON purposes?
The SPIRITUAL DISEASE this situation represents within the Soul of America took a generation to develop. It may take a generation to altogether come back from such a perversion of people’s political posture that reached the point where Good People Chose Evil.
It may seem that there’s nothing new to say about Trump: he’s been doing so many remarkable things for so long that everything seems to have been remarked upon. But while we may already have said what needs to be said about Trump himself, we have only begun to reckon with what it means about America that such a figure has emerged as the dominant political force of our times.
The problem this leaves us with is stark. A democracy depends on a people sharing enough moral ground to work together for the common good. But what happens when citizens are divided over something as fundamental as what is good and what is evil?
How can a people divided by THAT disagreement re-discover enough shared values that they can work together to achieve common purposes?
A final hopeful note: Truth be told, I believe that the deep division over Good and Evil is only partial, and may prove largely situational. Beneath that dark divide may reside a reservoir of shared values — of fairness, decency, and caring — which might again be tapped into in a future America.