Believe it or not, it is possible to disagree with both Donald Trump and the Chicago protesters.

And that is exactly where I stand — and quite a difficult position it is to take. It’s like answering the question, “Who would you prefer have won on the eastern front in World War II?”

Of course, Trump is not a Nazi, and the protesters aren’t the Soviets. But morally speaking, it’s like being stuck between the unstoppable force and the immovable barrier.

And I say they are both reprehensible.

Trump has contributed to this brutish, uncivil, and thus increasingly uncivilized atmosphere. His “rallies” have become little more than ecstatic sessions of ego stroking, with little more talk beyond how well he is supposedly doing in the polls, and the same tired, rehearsed, stale platitudes about China, Japan and Mexico, with a bit more than tacit approval for the oath-taking automatons to rough up any potential trouble makers.

Likewise, the protesters, which the leftist organization MoveOn.org has taken responsibility for organizing with the express purpose of shutting down the Trump rally, seemingly have nothing better to do than shut up someone they disagree with, and they, in turn, are willing to instigate violence to do it.

Trump, on the one side, represents the abuse of free speech — the protesters the suppression of it. Both are dangerous and ominous to the life of any free society, and yet both, in tandem, seem to be taking hold of increasing portions of the citizenry.

Politics is the art of directing the destructive forces previously funneled into violent acts of coercion into the constructive forces of the rule of law and the civil society. Any political faction that encourages, explicitly or implicitly, any ideology or action which violates this principle most fundamental to not just a free society, but society itself, should be rejected in the strongest terms.

Elements of the Trump faction is getting dangerously close to the explicit encouragement of violence.

The Leftist faction is getting dangerously close to the explicit approval of shutting up those who disagree with you.

Both of these factions and their supporters should be called out, their messages rejected, and their tactics exposed and despised.

Both of these factions have not just forgotten rationality, but openly despise it, and have thus embraced the passions as their rule of action, appealing to our baser natures and our animal instincts.

There is something deeply disturbing afoot in this country. These recent events are not so much an indictment of Trumpish populism or leftist radicalism. They are ultimately an indictment of the President occupying the White House. The Age of Hope and Change has finally succumbed to its own vacuousness. The final collapse has not yet arrived, but we can already see it coming.

The American people were sold a lie in 2008 which they bought all too willingly, and now the true price of that Faustian purchase is becoming obvious — it should now be beyond all doubt that the statecraft required to effectively govern a nation as consequential as the United States cannot be built on such vacuous, inane, mindless phrases as “Hope and Change,” and that if the American people want more from their leaders, they first need to take a hard look in the mirror and expect more from themselves.

It remains to be seen whether we have the moral fortitude to act upon this lesson, a lesson which if ignored is guaranteed to be fatal.