What makes America's current polarization remarkable isn't the severity of our disagreements but our utter lack of engagement debating them.
So many Americans are so angry and frustrated these days -- vulnerable to loss of job and healthcare and home, without a shred of economic security -- they're easy prey for demagogues offering simple answers and ready scapegoats. Take, for example, Bill O'Reilly and his colleagues at Fox News.
But people can only learn from others who disagree with them -- or at least from witnessing debates between people who respectfully and civilly disagree. Without respect and civility, it's not a debate -- it's just name-calling.
A democracy depends on public deliberation and debate. Without it, the members of a society have no means of understanding what they believe or why. The Lincoln-Douglas debates were notable not because they solved anything but because they helped Americans clarify where they agreed and disagreed on the wrenching issue of slavery.
Hence the danger today -- when deliberation has stopped.
This morning I left a message on Bill O'Reilly's office phone asking him to invite me onto his show to debate whether public investments in education and infrastructure are needed.
What are the odds he'll invite me on?
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