Poker is a zero-sum game. So are Olympic sports. Somebody must tell the United States’ leaders that economic and social progress are not.

The debates over the many consequential challenges of our time have become trapped in the belief that winning requires somebody to lose. Bubbling up from an increasingly anxious electorate, this zero-sum frame is turning the United States’ politics in a weird, dark direction that belies its history as a prosperous liberal market democracy.

Zero-sum thinking is showing up everywhere — tainting the politics of immigration and trade, environmental policy and national security. If left unchecked, it will surely undercut the United States’ prosperity. But nobody seems interested in offering an alternative win-win vision of the world.

Donald Trump is the champion of this dark understanding. In his view, resources and rewards are fixed, to be won or lost. As president, he slapped tariffs on imports to eliminate a trade deficit which, he argued, amounted to foreign countries winning at Americans’ expense. He bristled at alliances such as NATO — a waste of money to subsidize Europe’s defense at no gain to the United States.

But the zero-sum worldview does not exclusively belong to any one party. President Joe Biden doubled down on Trump’s protectionism (if somewhat more politely), stymieing progress in the battle against climate change. He has not threatened to defund Ukraine, but........

© Washington Post