By David Larson
Carolina Journal
As the Civil War was concluding, President Abraham Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address, calling for malice towards none and charity for all. This was a much more divisive time, involving disagreements over human slavery and whether to remain a nation at all. Whether our team won, lost, or (like here in North Carolina) saw mixed results, we can take some lessons from this sentiment. The health of our political institutions and civil society rely on it.
Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the way many of us are reacting to our recently concluded election. Here are some of the ways we are showing malice towards many and charity for few, and how we can do better:
Schadenfreude: This fun German compound word (the Germans are really the masters of compound words) literally means “harm joy.” It’s the enjoyment of others’ suffering. And for political junkies, it’s a favorite pasttime.
Just look on social media for posts like, “The 10 best liberal meltdowns over Trump’s victory,” if you need evidence. I have to admit, I’ve partaken in this myself and have enjoyed watching people lose their mind over “my side” winning. For some reason, when my side loses, it has always struck me as distasteful and tacky though. Hopefully, at our better moments, we can all see enjoying the suffering of others, even if it’s entertaining and we believe their candidates deserved to lose, is not particularly edifying personally or to the culture.
Cutting off family and friends: As some on the right enjoyed watching and laughing as their left-wing neighbors lost their minds, some on the left pursued the emotional pain of their opponents in other ways — like by cutting off friends, family, and even spouses who supported opposing candidates.
Since the election, Sunny Hustin on “The View,” Joy Reid on her MSNBC show, and Tom Nichols at the Atlantic, among others, have recommended this strategy. And countless online posts document people doing just that. Many involve cancelled Thanksgiving plans. Some involve telling grandparents they will not be able to see their grandkids ever again. Others involve newfound hate for coworkers. The most extreme examples I’ve seen involve people walking out of otherwise happy marriages without a word.
Group blame: And when you run out of people in your life to punish, some decide entire people groups are to blame. But it’s not just bad strategy to blame demographics who weren’t convinced by your favored party or candidate, (since it may push those groups further away from your coalition), it’s also unAmerican.
As Lincoln said in another of his famous speeches, the Gettysburg Address, America is a “nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” It’s an idea, rather than an ethnicity. It’s true that English-speaking Protestants from the British Isles have been the dominant culture, but Irish Catholics, Jews, black Americans, and other groups (hopefully including Swedes) have contributed massively to our success and history. And the times where these groups were sidelined and not allowed to contribute led to some of our worst moments, like the Civil War and Jim Crow.
So America at her best, I believe, embraces a unifying idea rather than an identity-based battle for dominance — which is why it’s dangerous to just hurl around group blame when things don’t go the way you want.
One of the most common groups to blame, naturally, was blue-collar white men.
But Native Americans (who had the highest percentage support for Trump), Latino men (who went majority for Trump), black men, Asians, Arabs, and others also received group blame at times for the results.
Loving your political enemies
So, before you bask in the pain of your political rivals, cut off your family and friends, or blame entire people groups, consider Lincoln’s counsel. If you believe someone has joined a truly evil ideology, continuing to love them could be what breaks their brainwashing or moderates them.
It’s also possible you could be wrong (a realization I’ve had a few times in life). Or maybe they are not at their final stage in their views. If you cut someone off forever for their current views, you may miss out on them at other stages you would appreciate.
But more often, people solidify in their beliefs as they age, and you have to just learn to accept them. The ideas that divide us are complicated and appear very differently to different people. What one person considers a genocidal atrocity is common sense to another.
The war in Gaza and abortion are good examples. I think Israel is responding to a horrific attack on their civilians by trying to eliminate Hamas, who is purposefully hiding under civilian infrastructure, making the war more deadly than it should be. I know others who think Israel is purposefully punishing the civilian population (and is an illegitimate colonialist presence in the area anyway).
On abortion, I think human life begins at conception and that killing fully formed babies who could live outside the womb (and even those that can’t) is gravely wrong. I know others who think it’s a woman’s right to do this and that there is no moral problem with it because the baby is still part of her body.
In their mind, I support genocide in the Middle East and oppose a fundamental human right for women. In my mind, they support killing innocent, defenseless babies and are naively falling for the propaganda of an antisemitic terrorist group. Yet, we’re able to be friends and family, to share meals and jokes. How? It’s one of the mysteries of the human experience, but it certainly has something to do with setting aside malice and extending charity.
So if our fellow Americans were able to set aside malice over bloodshed and slavery after the Civil War, even if it took some time and did not always go smoothly, we should certainly be able to labor to the same ends with our neighbors after this election.
David Larson is opinion editor of Carolina Journal.
