American democracy is suffering from an unhealthy polarization of values, where both sides engage in unproductive and dishonest rhetoric. A healthy democracy must focus on optimizing competing values rather simply admonishing one in favour of another, which is counterproductive. Our values are simply temporal expressions our individual opinions. We can recalibrate more optimally by promoting and paying attention to honest politicians and analysts instead of blind adherence to our tribe. We can also strive to be well-informed, curious, and humble enough to change our minds in the face of better information.

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