Dan Crenshaw: The Outrage Incentive Is Dooming Our Politics

Eight months ago, I wrote about civility in politics in The Washington Post following my atypical appearance on Saturday Night Live. So how are we doing since that moment? I would say that we haven’t come very far. Some weeks are better than others, but for the most part our nation remains deeply divided. The main point I made eight months ago was this: outrage culture has gone too far, we are too often seeking out reasons to be offended, and we should attack each other’s ideas, not each other’s character.America gets an F on all of these.Each day I wake up and check the news. Nearly every day it’s merely to make sure I did not miss anything wildly controversial. Who said what, what are the implications of that comment, what was the context of what was said? Some days are slow, which is great. We can focus on a particular policy issue or piece of legislation. But some days are decidedly not slow. And what happens to Congress’s focus? It’s clearly not on improving the lives of Americans.Like last week: instead of debating substantive and pressing issues like the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the humanitarian crisis at our border, or looking for bipartisan ways to contain an increasingly rogue Iran, our country was thrust into petty news cycle after petty news cycle, a political tit-for-tat that left many Americans exhausted, including myself.  Continue reading...