David French has a wonderful meditation on empathy today to which I would offer one amendment. As he notes, “Just as we wouldn’t call love a sin because we might be stingy in our love, empathy isn’t a sin because its application is incomplete. Or, put another way, our problem isn’t with too much empathy, but too little.” nytimes.com/2026/02/19/…

French posits this view against the foolish argument rising on the MAGA right that empathy is being “weaponized” against Christians to distract them from the reality that “sometimes, as the argument goes, you have to do tough, hard things.” Of course, most of the “tough, hard things” the Trump administration is doing are unnecessary and simply cruel.

But sometimes, you DO have to do tough, hard things. And it is precisely then that we need empathy the most. Empathy disciplines a society in those situations. It forces us to ask: Is there really no other way? And if there is no other way, are we doing all that we can to recognize the humanity of those on whom we are inflicting force? Lincoln waged war with empathy. That is the hardest thing of all.