Growing up, my house backed up to a park with a teeter-totter, the kind that was little more than a steel pipe with two wooden boards as seats. Yeah, I\u2019m that old. <\/p>\n
When I was little, the up and down was hours of fun. But bouncing from sky to dirt in a bipolar fashion loses its charms with endless repetition. As we grew older, my friends and I would try to balance instead, making the bar hover horizontally off the ground through a mix of physics and what seemed like magic. <\/p>\n
That, folks, is my metaphor for life, America and this particular column. America needs balance, no matter how difficult it is to achieve, no matter if we topple a few times trying. And no, I don\u2019t mean finding a moderate political middle ground \u2014 there\u2019s no middle ground with hate. <\/p>\n
We need to be both empathetic toward our fellow Americans while at the same time having clarity about the seriousness of our political moment \u2014 what is possible and what is not, what is practical and what being a decent human requires of us. <\/p>\n
Empathy and clarity. Not one or the other, but both, in equal measure. <\/p>\n
Let me explain why I am making this obvious point. <\/p>\n
There is a new attack underway by the far right that some of you may yet be unaware of. Those who seemingly disdain values I hold dear \u2014 solidarity, compassion, freedom \u2014 have launched a war on empathy. <\/p>\n
Yes, empathy, the ability to share and understand the feelings of another \u2014 the gateway drug to emotions including mercy, and values including tolerance and justice. Some on the right have gone so far as to declare empathy a sin.<\/a> <\/p>\n That may sound like a bad Christmas joke, but it\u2019s true. This tantrum against our ability, maybe even obligation, to recognize others\u2019 experiences is a strange and sad offshoot of the successful assault on \u201cwoke,\u201d which has always been little more than belligerence toward equality.<\/p>\n This denigration of empathy is steadily if stealthily gaining a following on the so-called Christian right. More disturbingly, it can be seen in federal policy, which increasingly doesn\u2019t just allow cruelty, but favors it. To wit: Stephen Miller. <\/p>\n MAGA champion Elon Musk put this view most succinctly when he labeled empathy as dangerous to America, and \u201cWestern\u201d civilization as a whole.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy,\u201d Musk said<\/a> earlier this year on the Joe Rogan podcast. \u201cThe empathy exploit. They\u2019re exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response. So, I think, you know, empathy is good, but you need to think it through.\u201d<\/p>\n The premise here isn\u2019t that all empathy is wrong, only empathy for those deemed unworthy. I\u2019ll let you make your own list of who Musk and other followers of this mean little philosophy consider undeserving. <\/p>\n There\u2019s an ugly logic to this position, though \u2014 which is what makes it dangerous. Empathy tells us to help everyone all the time, to open our hearts, our borders and maybe even our federal coffers. <\/p>\n Clarity tells us it\u2019s simply not possible to help everyone, and trying to do so will topple the whole shebang. Musk is right that choices about who to help and how to help are necessary. <\/p>\n But his pitting of empathy in direct opposition to that clarity about our limitations is self-serving and, let\u2019s be real, the kind of man-child narcissism currently being celebrated as strength. But we are not required to shrink into selfishness and judgment when faced with need. There is actually a Good Book that discusses this. And as individuals and a country, we have always made hard choices, sometimes fair ones, often not. <\/p>\n Regardless, this current attempt by the anti-empathy crowd to create a separation of humanity into valuable vs. exploitative is a guiding star for President Trump\u2019s policies. <\/p>\n But here\u2019s where it gets even more complicated, because we all have identities beyond country.<\/p>\n That\u2019s diversity, the melting pot, the freedom we hold dear to be whatever we are. That freedom is the cornerstone of American society \u2014 but also the pluralism that was exploited in the recent cultural war over diversity, equity and inclusion. Pluralism lost that one, and now the fight for rights of all these different groups has somehow been successfully labeled as unjust. <\/p>\n Now, with the economy still giving most Americans the jitters, the anti-empathy crowd is gearing up to take that win a step further by making it seem obvious, just simply practicality and clarity, that we can either have empathy or protect ourselves and our loved ones.<\/p>\n Eighty percent of Americans agree with the statement that \u201cempathy is a moral value that is the foundation of a healthy society,\u201d according to one recent and well-respected survey<\/a> from the Public Religion Research Institute.<\/p>\n But 37% of Christian nationalism adherents agreed that empathy \u201cis a dangerous emotion that undermines our ability to set up a society that is guided by God\u2019s truth.\u201d<\/p>\n