What is “political” in today’s atmosphere is not required to constitute knowledge, but only advocacy, and therefore it is broadly permitted as an exercise of freedom, academic or otherwise. It doesn’t even have to make sense, and making sense is not always thought of as an advantage for it. The “political” has no necessary connection with what is morally right or wrong or with what is cognitively justifiable…

The word “moral” does not now reliably function in explanation of anything recognizable to the contemporary popular mind—that is part of what the “disappearance of moral knowledge” means—and hence the default to “political.“ …

That in turn casts light on why, in recent years, political processes and political discourse in this country have become so morally embittered, generating a political life dominated by contempt, anger, and even hatred. Political opposition quickly degenerates into hard core moral opprobrium. Confusion of the moral with the political, perhaps fostered in part by the intention of treating moral issues as political (or legal), actually may have backfired with the effect of making political opponents out to be immoral and hence unworthy of the generous regard and cooperation necessary to successful political interactions.