America's Moral Privatization Enabled Trump's Acceptance
Source: "Opinion | How Did Trump Become Morally Acceptable? - The New York Times." February 12, 2026. www.nytimes.com
The Gist
Brooks argues that Trump became politically acceptable because America abandoned shared moral standards over the past 50 years. Instead of having common beliefs about right and wrong, we now let everyone decide their own morality, which made it impossible for people to agree that Trump was morally unfit for office.
Conclusion
Donald Trump became morally acceptable to millions of Americans because of a preceding moral ruination - the privatization of morality that eliminated shared moral standards
Premises
- 77 million Americans voted for Trump despite his moral failings, which would not have happened 50 years ago
- America historically had a shared moral order that provided universal standards of right and wrong
- Martin Luther King's moral authority came from appealing to moral laws written into the fabric of the universe
- Over the last 50 years, America has privatized morality, rejecting shared moral values and ultimate truth
- The current system allows everyone to create their own individual moral values
Assumptions
- Trump has clear moral disqualifications that should be obvious to voters
- Shared moral standards are superior to individualized moral systems
- Historical America had more robust moral consensus than today
- Moral relativism weakens society's ability to make collective moral judgments
- The change in moral framework is causally related to Trump's political success