Contra Bridget Phetasy, We Should Not Abandon Partisan Politics

“Given the fact that humans are competitive by nature, how could politics not become some version of a team sport? It is true that hyper-partisanship is not great, but the game is what it is.”

The “politically homeless” people are convinced they have it all figured out. When it comes to politics, both sides are crazy! The Republicans are corrupt, the Democrats have lost their minds, and since there really are not any respectable third-party options—count me out!

It is difficult to blame anyone for feeling this way. Politics has become so hyper-partisan that it all just feels gross. And many never-Trump conservatives are facing a real political identity crisis as they navigate away from the Republican Party. All this might reasonably lead one to ask: If there is an option to step back while the two political extremes fight it out, isn’t that the enlightened thing to do?

In fact, it is not enlightened at all. At best, the politically homeless movement props up the false notion that it is even possible truly to be an enlightened centrist. At worst, it promotes weaponized political apathy—a form of apathy that not only encourages people to stop participating in the democratic process but makes them feel smug while doing so.

More to the point, the politically homeless movement willfully ignores anything remotely resembling smart political analysis. Instead, it is largely rooted in social media-friendly “takes” that are either beside the point or easily refutable.