JULY 12, 2026

Opinion piece argues partisan identity without intellectual humility threatens American civic life

A Washington Examiner opinion piece by Andrew Moore, a small-business owner and author, argues that the fusion of personal identity with political conviction has transformed American political discourse from an exchange of ideas into active conflict. Moore draws on philosophy, biblical metaphor, and Abraham Lincoln's private Civil War writings to make his case. The piece is published as a single-source opinion column with no news event as its anchor.

Andrew Moore, writing in the Washington Examiner, argues that most Americans share broadly similar goals — prosperity, health, and meaning — but that disagreement over how to achieve those goals has hardened into tribal identity that damages democratic society. Moore states that the danger is not strong conviction itself, but conviction that is detached from humility.

Moore illustrates his argument with an anecdote about a friend he calls John, described as a well-read liberal who expressed agreement with the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision despite that position departing from left-leaning orthodoxy. Moore uses the example to distinguish between positions held with intellectual curiosity and those held as markers of group loyalty, describing the latter as increasingly dominant.

The piece addresses the cultural norm that "silence is complicity," arguing that the standard is impossible to sustain because no individual has sufficient time or knowledge to publicly engage every political controversy. Moore frames abstention as a recognized democratic right rather than a moral failing, and characterizes the demand for constant public affirmation as a form of coercion incompatible with genuine deliberation.