There has been a lot of talk recently about the inci­vil­ity of pub­lic dis­course. Susan Herbst thinks manda­tory debate train­ing might be a solution.

The truth is that while Amer­i­cans pio­neered a kind of democ­racy, we have never been par­tic­u­larly good at debate — not dur­ing Alexis de Tocqueville’s era, and not today. We cer­tainly don’t seem to have the patience for it. There have been some intrigu­ing pres­i­den­tial cam­paign exchanges here and there, mem­o­rable moments in con­gres­sional hear­ings, and of course many mov­ing ora­tors in main­stream pol­i­tics and out­side of it. But we will never see the sort of civil, thought­ful, inven­tive debate that enables good pub­lic pol­icy mak­ing until we inspire the young adults in our midst how to pur­sue it themselves.