Updated

Tonight the Democrats will debate. Or at least, they will participate in a presidential debate. Whether they will actually engage in policy and political disagreements is another question.

Democrats, as a party, are less and less into the notion of disagreement. The Left, as a political force, shows more and more antipathy towards dissent and non-conformity. Does that allow for an interesting debate?

Democrats used to disagree about gay marriage. Now, if you hold the view Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama held a few years back, you're a bigot who doesn't deserve civil liberties. Democratic candidates used to disagree about trade, but Hillary has come around to the party line. Democrats used to disagree about abortion, but that's a sacrosanct issue for them now.

As a sign of the narrow bounds of speech allowed in many liberal circles, consider that Martin O'Malley had to apologize for saying "All Lives Matter." All Democratic candidates support campaign-finance policies that would curb outside groups' abilities to participate in political debate.

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