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SACRAMENTO As someone who tries to evaluate specific public policies based on their merits and adherence to my long-held libertarian philosophy, Ive been increasingly dispirited by the crazypartisanshipthat has consumed our political debates. These days, were supposed to simply pick a team and cheer as it runs up the score on the other team.

Dont you know thatpolitics is binary? conservative friends would ask whenever I criticized some misbegotten Trump administration policy (e.g., tariffs). In their view, Republicans always are better on balance than the Democrats, so I need to join their side and fight even when they promote idiocy. Topartisans, its always about winning the next election.

When I call balls and strikes those Supreme Court justice nominations are great, but trying to steal an election endangers our democracy Im apparently a sellout. Even though I routinely criticize Californias Democratic politicians, Im thrilled on the rare instances that they advance sensible ideas such as when Gavin Newsom signed a package of long-overduepolice reforms.

The end goal is good public policy, and it shouldnt matter who champions it. But when we view politics as a grudge match, we lose our leverage to change the way that our allies operate. Perhaps holding both Republicans and Democrats accountable for routinely violating their statedprinciplesmight push them to reconsider the positions they take. Well, hope springs eternal.

Writing about Democratic responses to the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in the Kenosha, Wis., shootings and a police shooting in the city, The Bulwarks Charlie Sykescomplainedabout The tyranny of ideological narratives. Thats a crucial observation. Indeed, both sides jump to tribe-based conclusions about specific events and their hot takes always are so banal and predictable.

Yet when everything is hardened ideologically, we lose the ability to make nuanced distinctions. We can never evenagree on the basic factsof any given situation (even if its caught on video) and end up advancing morally dubious and even clownish positions.

This self-imposed ideological tyranny leads politicians to spend their time posturing rather than governing. They mainly try to energize their base. They eschew reasonable ideas but seek only to heighten the partisan anger. Few politicians do this more consistently than the populist Republican Sen.Josh Hawley of Missouri.

During a speech to a conservative group this month, Hawley depicted a decline in masculinity as one of the nations foremost problems. I want to focus tonight on the deconstruction of men, not because men are more important, but because I believe the attack on men has been the tip of the spear of the Lefts broader attack on America. And because this attack on men is already far advanced, hesaid.

The populist right has long had a weird, almost adolescent view of manliness. Men are half the population and some of them always have struggled with something, so its goofy to depict us as the targets of some orchestrated attack. The politics ofvictimization, whether it comes from conservatives or liberals, has become so tiresome.

Theres a legitimate argument that, say, a rapidly changing economy, a government-run educational system that sees college (rather than trades) as the one-size-fits-all approach and the spread of government-assistanceprograms, has led many men into a life of idleness, substance abuse and despair. That pox has devastated some poor and working-class communities.

But instead of addressing a cultural/economic problem thats been analyzed for decades, Hawley is using it to bludgeon his opponents and accuse them of attacking half the population. He takes a serious societalconundrumand turns it into a political battle cry rather than a search for practical solutions.

Of course, leftists arent looking for solutions to any problem beyond their go-to answer of increasing governmentspending. When that spending leads to an easily predictable and painful bout of inflation, they stick to their usual ideological narratives. First, they told us there is no real inflation, then they cast blame on everything other than their own policies.

Now, with oil prices up 59 percent, meat and poultry prices up 12 percent and overall inflation up 6.3 percent, they cant ignore reality. They tell us that inflation actually isnt such a bad thing. Its the predictable product of the economys rapid recovery, and its cost have been offset, to a large degree, by robust wage growth and government policies,arguedMSNBC columnist James Surowiecki.

We obviously cant address an inflation crisis if were arguing that the erosion of Americans savings and their inability to buyhomesand cars actually isnt that big of a deal. But thats what happens when politics becomes totally binary. The inflation is OK crowd would no doubt make the opposite argument if the GOP team were in power.

Theres not much we can do other than commit ourselves to viewing the world more as arefereeand less like a cheerleader.

Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute and a member of the Southern California News Group editorial board. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.

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Manliness, inflation and the scourge of partisan idiocy - San Bernardino County Sun