Hate is cultivated and encouraged in America. Hate and fear are used, implemented or deliberately fostered to divide Americans to keep them from getting together...the races, the sexes, the classes, the ideologies, the variously educated, the religious and non-religious. Hate is used to divide the people as well as the government...in order to circumvent the democratic process. Behind all this punditry (such as this opinion piece) is money...the big money which now owns most major media. And behind that is the big money to be made hating certain foreign nations and the constant warfare in which America is now engaged. In simple terms, America's economy is based on making bombs as fast as they can be dropped. The money is in the military machine...the money has purchased the political system and the media used to stir up hate and fear. Lamenting a shooting here and there is part of the strategy. I wonder if Mr. Gerson even knows...the best propagandists believe in their own stuff.