Brat McKay here in Wulk, between the edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.

When K was growing up, her grandfather often told her that when he was serving on a Navy

ship during World War II, there were two things he and his fellow sailors never talked

about, religion and politics.

In the present age, we're apt to think that leaving politics off the table like that

is an authentic, or worse, a sign of being an insufficiently engaged citizen.

We're apt to think that more we do politics, the better the health of our politics.

My guess would say the opposite is true.

His name is Robert Tilles and he's professor of political philosophy and the author of

overdoing democracy while we must put politics in its place.

To end the show, Bob and I discuss how democracy isn't just a system of government, but a moral

ideal.

How the fact that it's an ideal gives it a tendency to extend its reach and how the particular

circumstances of modern times have extended that reach into all of our lifestyle choices,

from the car we drive to where we shop.

Bob argues, there can be too much of a good thing.

He says the way politics has saturated everything in our lives creates some negative effects.

Turning politics into something that parties can market like toothpaste and making each

individual's views more extreme so that we ultimately get to the point that we can't

see our political opponents as people who have an equal say in our democracy.

The solution Bob says is not to build bridges of dialogue with our political opponents

as is so often advised, but to engage with people in spaces, places and activities we're

...