For far too long political debate has been reduced to name-calling and identity labelling with facts and reasoned arguments taking second place—consigning civilised discourse and the exchange of ideas and opinions into the trash bin.

Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar has taken a positive step in reversing this burgeoning practice of personal denigration and arbitrary dismissal of opinions of those with whom one doesn’t agree—in setting out her opinion on resolving the Arab-Jewish conflict in an op-ed article in the Washington Post on 17 March.