海角大神

Welcome to your Daily. Today鈥檚 articles explore a controversy over who gets to tell stories, the 鈥淭rump effect鈥� in Iowa, color-coding聽the Hong Kong protests, the forces behind one locality鈥檚 economic revival, and how a space telescope changed human perspectives.

When I heard about an important new book by journalist Ezra Klein, 鈥淲hy We鈥檙e Polarized,鈥澛爀xploring the roots of America鈥檚 partisan climate, my thought turned unexpectedly to Aristotle.

Among other things, the Greek philosopher linked ethics to moderation. He defined core virtues in terms of finding a mean between the extremes.

Aristotle鈥檚 thought isn鈥檛 the finale of ethics. He supported the slavery of his day, for one thing. But that ideal of temperate thinking may have more-than-passing relevance in the age of political rifts that Mr. Klein documents, where compromise and centrism can seem missing in action.

Yoni Appelbaum, a senior editor at The Atlantic, recently of history worth noting. First, recent research finds a correlation in Europe between stable democracies and the health of the moderate right. A strong center-right party, it seems, is a bulwark against authoritarianism.

Second he finds examples that show political parties can move away from extremes. A century ago, it was Democrats turning from nativism toward greater inclusion.

For Mr. Klein, one path toward depolarization lies in . 鈥淭his is not a hypothetical,鈥� he writes. 鈥淭he聽country鈥檚 most popular governors are Charlie Baker in Massachusetts聽and Larry Hogan in Maryland.鈥� They are moderate Republicans who are governing in Democrat-dominated states, with majority support.

Moderation . But it may need some TLC.