Here’s a crazy idea: Just because liberals like something doesn’t mean conservatives have to hate it.

If our politics were healthy, we’d understand this intuitively. When considering possible legislation, we wouldn’t ask “What do our opponents think?” We’d ask questions like “What are the facts?” and “How does this comport with America’s tradition of securing the public good through the protection of individual rights?”

Instead, in our present dysfunctional environment, we get people saying things that are at best wrong, at worst completely bonkers.

Alas, the Culture War virus has now so infected the American body politic, even meat has become politicized. Florida’s elected officials have forbidden their voters to sell, buy and eat “lab-grown meat.” So has Alabama. Both are solidly “conservative”, a word that used to imply some sort of interest in freedom. Clearly not any more.

Simply put, lab-grown meat (also known as “clean meat”) is meat grown from animal stem cells. Three years of testing with biotech companies and the FDA have determined it to be safe and healthy. That’s hardly surprising, since it’s genetically identical to meat. By which I mean, it is meat. Except it’s even better.

Think of it. Meat without slaughterhouses. Meat much less likely to have bacterial contamination. Meat that uses fewer resources and produces less pollution. Meat that could become affordable enough to feed the world.

Yes, it’s true, these are things that liberals like, and not just the PETA nutjobs. But is that any reason for conservatives to hate them? Is that any reason for conservatives to insist that Americans are too stupid to make their food choices?

Apparently so. Consider the words of the supposedly sane governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis (R). According to his news release, “Florida is fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs.”

So if the good citizens of Florida decide they want to try a new food, it must be because the global elite is forcing them to. Brilliant. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Politicians such as DeSantis think voters want him to run their lives. The idea that Americans might be able to make decisions for themselves is heresy.

Sadly, some Democrats are jumping on the bandwagon. Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) posted this bit of pernicious drivel:

“As some dude who would never serve that slop to my kids, I stand with our American ranchers and farmers, (who know better than you do what you should be eating).”

All right, I added that last bit, but I can’t see how you could draw any other conclusion.

Fetterman’s comments get to the heart of the matter. Clean meat uses far less land, and has fewer environmental externalities than open ranching requires. Eventually, I predict it will become competitive with slaughtered meat, and might even supplant it. That will be bad for ranchers’ bottom line.

With a MAGA-dominated Republican party that has nothing but contempt for capitalism, free markets, competition, and consumer choice, it’s no wonder every special interest group is begging them for special treatment. In this case, that means making competition illegal.

Sooner or later, this issue is going to come up in Colorado. Under no circumstances should Colorado’s politicians cave to pressure from ranchers, or any interest group, to force Colorado consumers to give up our right to make our choices.

The Colorado Constitution defines one of our inalienable rights as seeking and obtaining happiness. If that doesn’t include sitting down for a family meal of our own choosing, then the phrase is meaningless.

Barry Fagin is senior fellow in technology policy at the Independence Institute in Denver, and the author of “The Radical Center.” His views are his alone. Readers can contact Fagin at barry@faginfamily.net.