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The conceptual artist Silvia Kolbowski began working on her new video, That Monster: An Allegory (2018), in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election The air of American life was thick with animosity, and like soot from a forest fire, it spread far beyond the burn Both sides of the political spectrum were consumed, in Kolbowski’s words, with such ‘sheer hatred’ that political disagreement became grounds to start a brawl or end a relationship Grandmothers famously unfriended their grandchildren and in-laws refused to visit Opting out of family holiday gatherings became not only common, but almost obligatory, if one’s family included resolute Trumpers In November 2018, the liberal Democrat New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote an op-ed anticipating an upcoming vacation with her brother, who was not only a Trump supporter, but a friend and defender of Brett Kavanaugh, the Republican Supreme Court justice accused of sexual assault Dowd used the article to reflect on how (and whether) a relationship can persist across a sea of political difference She was buried in backlash arguing that her concessions to her brother – the gestures necessary to preserve the relationship – were unethical and cowardly   This sense of atmospheric hostility is born out by data Both Republicans and Democrats view their counterparts as ‘closed-minded’, ‘immoral’, ‘lazy’, ‘dishonest’, ‘unintelligent’, and even ‘dangerous’ (Democrats fear that Republicans threaten their very being – their safety in the world as individuals – and Republicans fear that Democrats threaten the existence of America) Surveys have historically assessed party contempt on a numerical scale, where zero represents total animosity and 100 warm affection Since 2014, Democrats have thought worse of Republicans than they think of ‘big business’, and Republicans have thought worse of Democrats than they think of ‘people on welfare’ But the numbers continue to plummet The last iteration of the survey, a 2016 Pew Research Center Study, registered record numbers of respondents who reported their position as zero, meaning they couldn’t imagine a purer vitriol   As horrified as anyone else on the Left by Trump’s election, Kolbowski might have sharpened her anger, as so many did,