Do you ever find yourself watching a college football game between two teams you know nothing about and care about even less?  They’re in a conference in another part of the country that you’ve never even been to.  It’s Alabama playing Mississippi State, and you’re asking yourself is Mississippi State the same team as Mississippi?  What’s Ole Miss?  Is Mississippi State even in the SEC?  But since it’s a game and you’re watching, your mind instinctively wants to create in you a rooting interest — to make you pull for one team or the other so that you feel happiness when one team scores and disappointment when the other does.  Do you notice how often it later dawns on you that you’re rooting for one team — Mississippi State — not because you like or care about them but because you don’t like the other — Alabama?  Your interest in the game is really about seeing the team you don’t like lose not the other team win.

The point’s just as valid for other sports.  The New England Patriots are playing the Buffalo Bills.  You want the team you dislike — the Patriots — to lose.  You don’t care about Buffalo.  You’re not even sure where Buffalo is.  The New York Yankees are hosting the Tampa Bay Rays.  Who?  You’re only watching to see the Yankees lose.

That’s how many people vote.

In 2016, they didn’t so much as like Donald Trump.  They just really disliked Hillary Clinton.  They voted not for Trump but against Clinton.

Today there are tens of millions of voters who’ve made up their minds about the 2020 election.  They’re going to vote for Trump — even evangelical Christians — because they hate what they believe the Democrats stand for.  Or they’re going to vote for the Democratic nominee — no matter who he or she is — because they hate Donald Trump so much.

We’re not a country for things.  We’re a country against things.