, Columnist
Holy Wars, American Style
The nation moves from political polarization into full-blown Manichaeism.
The dark side.
Photographer: Burak Milli/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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There has been a great deal of discussion of social division and polarization in recent times, but those terms are inadequate. What besets the United States is much worse.
Both the right and the left are increasingly defined by a form of Manichaeism, in which the forces of light are taken to be in a death struggle with the forces of darkness. We are in a Manichaean moment.