What is it with Petaluma politics? Why is it that the resident political tribes find it necessary from time to time to work themselves into a frenzy?

A few years ago, the subject was Lafferty Ranch, a proposed regional park atop Sonoma Mountain. When asked to rate the most detestable human beings on earth, Lafferty partisans tended to rate cruel dictators first, followed closely by anyone with a different point of view about Lafferty Ranch.

Now comes the proposed Dutra asphalt plant, a controversy awash in righteous indignation.

Both Lafferty and Dutra can be counted among the controversies in which the principal combatants lose all sense of proportion – and thereafter grant themselves license to replace common sense with name-calling and hyperbole.

When Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose wrote that long-time government watchers found the debate “churlish, disrespectful and downright counterproductive,” Jane Hamilton, the former Petaluma city councilwoman, fired off an indignant reply, asserting there was nothing unusual about the proceedings.

“Yes, some people were annoying, tiresome and untruthful when trying to give their position extra validity,” she wrote, “Yes, a few others were sarcastic, immature and melodramatic, but nothing truly abusive was said.”

So, here we have the new normal – annoying, tiresome and untruthful, followed by sarcastic, immature and melodramatic. (If you wonder why many talented people won’t have anything to do with politics, here’s the answer in one sentence.)

Dutra backers want us to believe that the future of the local economy hangs in the balance, threatened by selfish NIMBYs and hypocrites eager to unload the responsibilities of modern life on to some other unsuspecting town.

The opponents claim that the project would forever poison the air and scar the landscape – destroying what one excitable fellow called “our Yosemite.”

Note: For those who have never visited this stretch of the Petaluma River and nearby Shollenberger Park, it is a fine place to walk and experience a marshland environment. But If you go searching for Half Dome, El Capitan and Bridalveil Falls, you may be disappointed.

County supervisors are expected to reject the Dutra project next month. After initially expressing support, Supervisors Valerie Brown and Efren Carrillo changed their minds, citing concerns about permit enforcement, diesel emissions and noise.

If nothing else, this controversy demonstrates again the ability of environmental activists to mobilize the faithful. The greens generated a full-court press that enlisted hundreds of local people, plus the help of neighboring city councils and allies in the California Legislature. (Things are going so well in Sacramento that lawmakers have time to get involved in other issues.)

That’s OK. For the last 40 years or so, disagreements over land-use decisions have defined our hometown politics. For inciting passions, no other issue comes close.

But there’s a price to pay when these disagreements escalate into religious wars. As with Lafferty Ranch, the bitter memories of the Dutra controversy will shadow efforts to solve other local problems.

In case no one noticed, we’ve got a couple of other problems to worry about.

While Petaluma is at war over an asphalt plant, the country is experiencing the worst economic conditions in 70 years, businesses are going broke and many of our neighbors are out of work. A UCLA study last week warned that 60,000 government workers in California will lose their jobs in the coming months, pushing the state’s jobless rate past 12 percent.

State government is on the verge of collapse. Young people are fleeing California in search of jobs and affordable housing. Schools programs are being gutted. Budget cuts will deny services to the people most in need, including children.

Petaluma, Rohnert Park and other cities – and county government, as well – are projecting broad lay-offs and deep cuts in police, fire, recreation and other services.

Where is our passion for the people who have lost their jobs, for the kids who won’t have health care, for the people who won’t find the help they need during a personal crisis, for the risks to public safety?

Also, the climate is changing. Maybe you didn’t get the memo. Why aren’t these activists showing the same passion when it comes to finding more money for bike lanes and transit, for finding new ways to conserve energy, or for new limits on water consumption?

Social scientists may explain why we become bogged down in the politics of recrimination. Perhaps activists like to use these emotional flashpoints to keep their constituents in line. Perhaps they fight because that’s what they were programmed to do. Perhaps they contest an asphalt plant because it’s easier than confronting a big, complicated world – facing climate change, economic dislocation and devastating cuts in social programs and education.

No doubt the opponents of the Dutra project feel excitement and vindication; no doubt the backers feel betrayed and embittered. As always, politics has winners and losers.

But we sacrifice too much of our energy, emotion and good will to these us-versus-them moments, forgetting that our world is changing and we’d better catch-up to those changes. After the Dutra fight is over, there will still be work to do if we want to live in a safe, prosperous and compassionate community.