Aspen Ideas Festival: Reclaiming the democratic virtues of moderation, civility and compromise
An Aspen Ideas Festival conversation about our public discourse and the democratic virtues of moderation, civility and compromise.
Those public virtues were once widely praised, but are now often dismissed as weakness — or even betrayal — of the cause.
Amy Walter moderated a panel featuring Michael Gerson, David Brooks and Peter Wehner. They concluded that maybe we only treasure these virtues when they're absent.
Michael Gerson is a syndicated columnist at the Washington Post.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
Peter Wehner is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington.
David Brooks is a New York Times columnist.
Walter is national editor of the Cook Political Report and is heard weekly on The PBS Newshour.
To listen to the discussion, click the audio player above.
More from Aspen Ideas Festival
• Being Latino in America today
• Can DNA help us grapple with the past?
• Living in the surveillance economy
• What your interactions with robots say about your character
• Prescriptions for a better health future
• Rural realities, problems and opportunities
• Stopping the violence in America's cities
• Has democracy run its course?
• StoryCorps founder David Isay on the importance of listening
• Bill Bishop on why we live with people just like ourselves
• David Brooks on 'The Second Mountain'
• How presidents prepare for Armageddon
• Why millennials work the way they do
• The social downside to technology
• What you need to know about Martin Luther King
• Conservatism in the Trump era
• American values and the Constitution
MPR News presents offers speeches, documentaries and debates — airing weekdays from noon to 1 p.m.