Fruitful Disagreement

When there is an excess of agreement, discussions in politics and elsewhere are often tiresome and boring: the parties are as if in competition to see who can express the most outrage.  One is preaching to the preachers. But an excess of agreement is better than a paucity thereof.  The ideal discussion, however,  is one in which broad agreement on fundamentals leaves  room for disagreement on details.  We are farther from that ideal than we have ever been in these no longer United States.