Humanity has a long and sad history of cruelty to other sentient beings including fellow humans. This is one of the darkest and saddest aspects of our selves and one we have struggled to overcome. Much progress has been made since the Middle Ages when public torture was common. And yet our progress comes from a relatively thin veneer of culture, barely restraining what remains a deep capacity for cruelty.

Among Trump’s worst influences is his embrace of cruelty as a means of politics. It is the most regressive part of his regressive Presidency, outstripping even the dismantling of science. Examples of Trump’s cruelty abound, from mocking people with disabilities to detaining immigrants in concentration camps. As always when it has been used historically, cruelty serves a dual purpose: to deny the humanity of the other and to rally and bond the supporters.

It is a mad and dangerous way of taking us back into a past filled with atrocities. Congress urgently needs to exercise any and all means of oversight or risk being further sidelined and seen as morally bankrupt. Voters need to put whatever minor objections they may have aside and vote for candidates who clearly renounce cruelty as a means of politics.