Starved & Hungry for Moral Clarity?

Confused in the times we're in? Have we lost that guiding Moral Compass? Clue: The poles are shifting
Or are we applying the wrong imagery and references to an appetite for clear thinking when all-too-human prejudices create "magnetic attraction" to our baser tribal instincts?
Those are some of the questions we appear to be dealing with, as #1 in Mike Allen's Axios AM Top Ten this morning 20 October 2017
1 big thing: Moral clarity in amoral times

"Sexual abuse in Hollywood.
Social media abuse in Silicon Valley.
Political abuse in the White House.
Dive into Twitter for a few minutes, and these can feel like the worst of times.
So everyone, and the GOP establishment in particular, seems hungry for moral clarity:

• White House aides, beaten down by criticism from friends and beleaguered by the words and actions of the boss, got a rare moral boost from Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly as he offered a highly emotional and highly personal explanation/defense of Trump's outreach to families who lost young men in Niger.
• Per Jonathan Swan, some White House aides teared up as Kelly described, during a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, what it was like for a fallen soldier to return home. Other aides stood watching him on TV, in stunned silence.
• "Kelly has managed to make himself the moral core of the Trump administration," a top White House official told us. "He just has so much credibility right now ... And he's in the best possible position, because he doesn't have to go out there and face the press every day. If he picks his spots he is now an extraordinarily credible and effective spokesperson on issues that need some moral clarity to them."
• Left unspoken: Trump rarely leaves staff feeling this way.

An implicit rebuke of the Republican president was the focus of blunt remarks this week by Sen. John McCain ("half-baked, spurious nationalism") and George W. Bush ("Bigotry seems emboldened").

• David Brooks writes in today's column: "Books will someday be written on how Trump, this wounded and twisted man, became morally acceptable to tens of millions of Americans."

Be smart: McCain and Bush have nothing to lose, and see themselves in the twilight of their closing careers. But it's stunning how few in power — and who want to stay in power — say anything like this in public.