Civil discourse and political debate

I wrote recently about the polarizing tone of civil discourse, and find Michael Sandel’s recent TED talk on The Lost Art of Democratic Debate encouraging. Sandel, professor of political philosophy at Harvard, looks at the essence and moral questions that underlie issues, and believes that bringing our deeply held moral convictions into debate will add to the quality of our civil discourse, contrary to popular belief which holds we have to shy away from the deep feelings and convictions we have.