Apparently, America will regain its greatness once everyone becomes mean enough.

Somewhere along the way, a strange idea took hold on parts of the American political right: kindness is weakness, compassion is naïveté, and treating people with dignity is apparently the first step toward national collapse.

This is an extraordinary theory.

Civilization was not built because everyone became better at insulting strangers. Communities did not flourish because the elderly were mocked, the poor were blamed, immigrants were demonized, minorities were treated as suspicious, and political opponents were regarded as enemies.

Societies work because people cooperate.

Societies work because we agree that the frightened child matters, the struggling family matters, the disabled person matters, the refugee matters, the lonely person matters, and—most inconveniently—the person who voted differently from us matters too.

A decent society does not require everyone to agree.

It requires everyone to remain respectful of one another while disagreeing.

Yet much of modern right-wing political approach seems to operate on the opposite principle. Cruelty becomes proof of toughness. Ridicule becomes authenticity. Empathy is dismissed as “woke.” A politician demonstrating compassion risks looking insufficiently angry for the evening cable-news audience.

Apparently, America will regain its greatness once everyone becomes mean enough.

There is something especially peculiar about politicians boasting of traditional values while treating kindness as a character defect.

Imagine explaining this philosophy to a five-year-old:

“Be polite.”

“Help people who are hurting.”

“Don’t bully.”

“Share.”

“Treat others the way you want to be treated.”

“Unless, of course, you enter politics. Then call everyone who may have a different opinion vermin.”

The strongest nations are not those whose citizens become skilled at contempt. They are societies in which people trust one another enough to cooperate despite differences.

Respect does not mean surrendering your beliefs.

Compassion does not require abandoning borders, laws, budgets, standards, or accountability.

It simply means remembering that policies affect human beings.

You can enforce a law without enjoying another person’s suffering.

You can disagree without humiliating.

You can demand responsibility without abandoning mercy.

And you can be strong without becoming cruel.

Perhaps that is what parts of the political right have forgotten.

A society ultimately reveals its character not by how loudly it celebrates winners, but by how it treats people who are vulnerable, unpopular, different, frightened, or temporarily defeated.

Kindness is not weakness.

It is evidence that power has learned some manners.

And frankly, America could use a little more of that.