How Political Speech Unites Us

Neither free-speech absolutism nor censorship will solve the problems that surround political speech today. Instead, we need a renewed commitment to the citizen’s task of finding common ground, even and especially between factions that seem irreconcilable. We need to relearn how to rule and be ruled in turn. Guests Jenna and Ben Storey join us to discuss how political speech can overcome social division and advance the common good. Jenna and Ben Storey are both senior fellows in Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and concurrently are research professors at Furman University, where they ran the Tocqueville Program. At AEI they focus on political philosophy, civil society, and higher education. The Storeys wrote a book together, titled Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment, and are working on a new one about liberal education and civic life.This podcast discusses themes from the Storeys’ essay in the Fall 2022 issue of National Affairs, “Political Speech in Divided Times.”