It’s not exactly news that President Obama uses race and other tribalisms to divide Americans into antagonistic groups for political reasons. As the first black president, he could have been a uniter by stressing what all Americans share, but he has instead used every opportunity to go the other way.

Psychiatrist Keith Ablow delved a little deeper in analysis when he appeared with Lou Dobbs on Monday. They discussed attention deficit disorder for a couple minutes, then went to Obama:

ABLOW: You either build a bridge and you talk about the commonality of man, or you use rhetoric designed to polarize people. This president is a polarizing president who finds his power when people are separate from each other. When there is fighting between them, he is the one he hopes they will turn to because when people aren’t united, they tend to want direction. This president never loses an opportunity to remind people that they need direction, that they don’t know what their hearts are. DOBBS: You just said something that I find revelatory and powerful in its in its obvious truth. He finds his power in division. . . ABLOW: He divides Americans from themselves. He cleaves people right down the middle, even individuals. He says “Look, you’re American,” but that’s also a bad thing so you should hate yourself a little bit because he doesn’t have regard for us.

If people “want direction” it is often because politicians like Obama have confused them on purpose. The left presses hard on oddball social issues like same-sex marriage and flexible gender identity that undermine the traditional meaning of basic institutions.

Confusion is a weapon. Politicians like the President use it to make the general public disoriented so they will withdraw and leave only the activists engaged and voting. The practice is another example of Obama’s Alinsky values and strategy.