Donald Trump is not solely responsible for hatred in the United States

I have a lot to say about how politics itself destroys civil society and the chance for social cooperation, best represented by the free and competitive market, but that's a much longer column yet to come. Needless to say, however, Donald Trump occupying the White House is not the cause of the division and hatred in America. He is, rather, a result of that division and hatred. Yet celebrities and media personalities continue to push a narrative that says we can go back to some imaginary, idyllic idea of a unified America simply by getting Trump out of the White House.

From Chrissy Teigen's Marie Claire cover story:

“People are very confident in their ways of being open about their racism because they have the backing views of the president,” she says. “It’s become such a hurtful, weird presidency for so many Americans, and I’m going to fight to get this person out of office because I can’t live another four years with this kind of hatred boiling through America.”

I definitely recall a lot of division in the United States from 2009-2017, when Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for President in 2020, was Vice President of the United States, and I recall a lot of division in the United States in the almost four decades that Joe Biden was a U.S. Senator. The idea that electing Joe Biden is somehow going to put alleged racists back into hiding, rather than simply emboldening them, and put a stop to the hatred that inevitably arises as, at least, two different cultures switch back and forth between using the political machinery of the U.S. government to dominate one another is the same logic as wishing upon a star.

The election of Joe Biden, or the reelection of Donald Trump, is only going to serve to make the situation worse. We are a large country of people who can no longer stand to be governed by one another.