Citizens Talk to Each Other

I link to a National Review article about the reactions of supporters and opponents of abortion. It details some conversations between people on different sides of the issue and it made me think: now those conversations matter. 

What has been so insufferable about this judicial diktat is that it has turned us into subjects instead of citizens. It has turned us into rival mobs shouting slogans at each other. The incentives are all wrong. 

There is no incentive but to make a public spectacle showcasing each side's passionate adherence to their side's most extreme position. There is no incentive to moderate one's position or to compromise. To the extent the public is involved at all, it is only to create the impression that there will be violence and blood running in the streets if the case doesn't go their way. It is a catalyst for extremism. 

In normal politics the incentives run in the other direction. It is in one's best interests to put forward a moderate proposal. It is best to deal amicably on all issues with everyone you deal with because everyone is a potential ally on some issue. 

But the most important thing is that it is a degraded condition. To live under laws that you have no hand, no voice, in making, is the office of a subject, not a citizen.