David French is concerned about about the state of political discourse in the US. French is a movement evangelical who finds himself out of step with the movement. He believes American evangelicals have by and large prioritized political power over Christ–and that from that perspective, “compassion and mercy will look like sins.” He wonders how his fellow Christians have “gone from supporting Donald Trump in spite of his hatefulness to reveling in his aggression.”
In search of an answer, he lands on a political philosopher from the 1930s, Carl Schmitt. [This link gets you beyond the paywall:https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/opinion/trump-maga-schmitt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU4.kv1i.7XYmciBWW4jF&smid=url-share]
French:
“Let us assume,” Schmitt wrote, “that in the realm of morality the final distinctions are between good and evil, in aesthetics beautiful and ugly, in economics profitable and unprofitable.” Politics, however, has “its own ultimate distinctions.” In that realm, “the specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy.”
One of liberalism’s deficiencies, according to Schmitt, is a reluctance to draw the friend-enemy distinction. Failing to draw it is a fool’s errand. . . .
[Schmitt] was also right that the friend-enemy distinction is ultimately incompatible with the liberal democratic project. Pluralism seeks to create a community in which historical enemies can live in peace and flourish side by side.
In the context of this friend-enemy distinction, French writes, “it can become immoral to treat your enemies with kindness.” Although French refrains from quoting Jesus, Matthew 5:43-44 can’t have been far from his mind as he wrote this column: “ 43You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Or Matthew 18:21-22:
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Instead of quoting the Bible here, French goes to the Founders:
“We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by morality and Religion,” John Adams wrote in his 1798 Letter to the Massachusetts Militia. . . .
We forget how much the founders — for all their faults — were focused not just on the forms of American government, but also on personal virtue. . . .
Demonstrate these virtues, and your enemies can live with dignity and freedom even when they lose a political battle. When your enemies show the same virtues, you can still enjoy a good life even when you lose. That’s the social compact of pluralism.
French notes that “while Trumpists are among the most vicious voices in the public square, merciless aggression is sadly common across the political spectrum, especially at the extremes.” This is not only a problem on the right–it is also a problem on the left. French concludes:
Because our civics depends on our ethics, we should be teaching ethics right alongside civics. Sadly, we’re failing at both tasks, and our baser nature is telling millions of Americans that cruelty is good, if it helps us win, and kindness is evil, if it weakens our cause. That is the path of destruction. As the prophet Isaiah said, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”
Woe to them, yes, but as friend-enemy politics dominates our discourse, tears our families and communities to shreds and reshapes our national morality, a darker thought crosses my mind.
Woe to us all.
Questions:
- What do you make of Jesus’s admonitions to love your enemies and to forgive, forgive, forgive? Wise? Foolhardy? Divinely ordained?
- Do Jesus’s words apply to politics, or is there an exemption for politics?
- Must political factions within a country be enemies?
- Have we gone from seeing each other as opponents to seeing each other as enemies? If so, why?
- Do you agree with French that friend-enemy politics will bring woe to us all?