In 1971, as he debated Ronald Reagan at the height of the Vietnam War in front of 2,400 Californian students, an 18-year-old Michael Sandel received an early lesson in defeat. “I grilled him in my best high school debater’s style, but I didn’t really land much of a blow,” the Harvard political philosopher recalled when we spoke. “He deflected each question and explained his view with good humour and with great respect for this young, long-haired questioner.”
The experience, Sandel told me, “taught me that political debate is not about winning on the debating points. It’s about rhetoric, it’s about listening, it’s about connecting on a human level.”
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