Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
A colleague noted recently how we, the people, collectively, seem to think in more black and white terms, disallowing nuance and complexity. Is this true? Have we lost the capacity to see shades of gray? Especially in politics?
Yes. But this state of polarized thinking is not permanent.
One of the primary causes of dichotomous, i.e. black and white, thinking is anxiety and depression. Is it any coincidence that we are living through hyperpolarized times? I think not.
Even before the pandemic of 2020, society-wide, we were experiencing profound increases in both anxiety and depression. Then the pandemic arrived and changed our lives, turbo charging our collective anxiety and depression.
It’s no wonder politics is more polarized than ever! When we are anxious, our fight-or-flight tendencies kick in. We think in terms of good or bad as a way to cope with our anxiety — to find something stable. But when the world doesn’t fit neatly into our polarized view of good or bad, our anxiety strikes again. It’s a cycle that requires attention, intervention and connection.
One way to pay attention is to identify polarized thinking in our use – or overuse – of “absolutist terms.” An occasional use of these words is OK. But when we say these words to ourselves over and over again, it indicates polarized thinking:
- always
- never
- impossible
- disaster
- furious
- ruined
- perfect
Once we’ve noticed that our thinking has shifted to black and white terms, it’s time to intervene. Creativity, mindfulness, and exercise or any movement, especially outside with nature, is helpful to reorient our thinking to the beauty of each moment. And we may need to talk with someone to stop the thought distortion that anxiety produces. Professionals will have other therapies, too. The key is to start the intervention as soon as possible.
Another tragedy of polarized thinking is how we disconnect from others. And the challenge of reconnecting might start the cycle of anxiety all over again. We wonder if we’ll be rejected, we may feel ashamed, we may want to just move and start over. Regardless of whether we are reaching out to current or new friends, we need skills to connect healthily, with all the shades of gray allowed. It takes practice, like learning to play an instrument. You may want to practice together with your loved ones – or you may prefer to practice with strangers first. It is through our deep connections with people that we can sense-make together to solve our nation's problems.
I started this column thinking I was going to blame computer programmers who started using zeros and ones for decision making. Or pollsters who often reduce choices into binaries and then report on them as fact. I was certain there was a boogeyman to blame. Turns out...it's complicated. Like everything else.
I’ll see you at practice.
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.