Hi, I'm Jim Denison with Dennis and Forung, and this is the daily article for Thursday, October 4th, 2018.

Does watching the news cause you stress? If so, you're in the majority, according to the American

Psychological Association. Responding to the vitriol of our day, New York Times columnist Thomas

Friedman warns that a civil war in America may be coming if we can't find a way out

of the tribalistic, political, and cultural fracturing that threatens our future. I think I can

explain a foundational reason for the divisive angst of our day. Then I'd like to offer a surprising

way forward I discovered recently. This morning's Wall Street Journal reports that the White House has reviewed the FBI's

probe into Judge Brett Kavanaugh and finds no corroboration of sexual misconduct allegations.

Senators are set to review the FBI's findings today.

Why has Judge Kavanaugh, Supreme Court nomination, evokes such visceral reaction?

The late Antonine Scalia's son has an explanation. Christopher Scalia recently pointed to the oversized power of the Supreme Court

in contemporary America. In his view, the court has preemptively settled cultural issues that should

have been resolved in elections. Roe v. Wade in the 2015 same-sex

ruling or examples. According to Senator Ben Sasse, the blame lies largely with legislators

who have delegated authority on divisive issues to the executive branch or the judiciary.

That's a good strategy for lawmakers who want to get re-elected by skirting controversy, but it's a bad strategy for a republic whose governance intends such issues to be decided by leaders directly accountable to the people.

With three current Supreme Court justices age 70 and older, it's predictable that we'll see more fights over future nominations and more

fights over who should nominate and confirm them. So how did we get here?

Abraham Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs begins with the physical, that includes air, water,

food, rest, and health. It proceeds upward to security, which includes safety, shelter,

and stability, social, which includes being safety, shelter, and stability, social,

which includes being loved, belonging, and inclusion, ego, which includes self-esteem, power,

...