Donald Trump And The Politics Of Fear

Whether you consider yourself to be liberal or conservative, gay or straight, rich or poor, hopefully there are at least a few things we can all agree on.

Hate hurts.

Love heals.

What matters isn't whether you experience fear.

It's how you respond when you do.

Donald Trump's acceptance speech was designed to do exactly two things: stoke anger and drum up fear.

In response, it would be all too easy to meet fire with fire. And that may be how this campaign is going to go.

But individually and collectively, there is another way.

In the face of anger and fear, the natural first instinct is to try and fight those fears -- to overcome them, through violence, force, or will.

The second instinct is to try and run from them, by numbing out and consuming something instead.

Neither of these choices work. Because the real choice isn't between liberal and conservative, right and wrong, or even good and evil -- the ultimate choice is between love and fear.

We live in a time of unprecedented change. And change is scary.

But remember. What you resist, persists. If you try to conquer hatred, you get more hate. If you try to overcome fear, you get more fear.

And if you try to destroy Donald Trump, well, what really matters is not what you're AGAINST but what you're FOR instead.

So as we enter into what may be a very dark and negative season, it's worth remembering a few simple things.

As Steven Pinker proves, the amount of violence in our world keeps going down -- not up.

Over the last 80 years, voters have consistently chosen the more positive candidate for president.

And as we learned from the last election, destroying your opponents may win you a nomination, but the politics of fear has a way of eating its own.