An old-fashioned conservative, seven years ago in the Republican primary John cheered for Ted Cruz, scowled at Donald Trump; then a quirky thing happened: That fall, staring at Trump and Hillary on a debate stage, having to choose between two evils he picked Trump and, in the next breath, in his eyes Trump was no longer evil – he was good.

During World War II we carpet bombed a German town to destroy a tank factory but our bombs also landed on a nunnery, killing nuns. It was a bleak choice: Let Germans go on building tanks that killed our soldiers or carpet bomb a town and kill innocent nuns.

Dancing angels on the head of a pin my Jesuit friend Sean told me bombing the nunnery was unfortunate but not evil. The way he saw it the lesser evil was good. I asked: ‘So you wouldn’t repent killing those nuns, you don’t see that as a sin?’

These days politics hands us choices between evils all the time – and leaves us facing a hard fact: Choosing between evils, choosing a lesser evil, doesn’t end well. Unless a Divine Hand moves and saves us (which isn’t likely when you tell yourself an evil is good) we land in a pit.