A "Stunning Rejection of Public Debate"

Are Americans scared silent, refusing to question policies they disagree with?

In this Newsday column, Deborah Tannen, linguistics professor at Georgetown University, asks:

"How can there be such a disjunction between the positions a majority hold on the issues and the way a majority voted, three months after a presidential election that aroused more passion than any in memory, in which basic questions about the direction of the country were at stake?

"I think the answer has something to do with a failure of public discourse. The campaign aroused a lot of passion, but not a lot of discussion of the policies that would result if one or the other candidate was elected, nor of the effect these policies would have on citizens' lives."