I keep hearing from certain people the phrase, "We need a national dialog". I have no idea what that is or how to execute it. Can anyone enlighten me?
It's a meaningless phrase used by clever idiots to fill a perceived void, and appease less clever idiots. My current favorite phrase of a similar ilk is "Based on recent events..."
We're having that dialog in 122 days. All citizens get to speak their word if they choose to. This dialog goes from the bottom up.
A "national dialog" is politispeak for "We aren't really going to do anything about this issue, just talk it to death until you're all bored and ready to switch to the next issue of the month."
A dialogue is often executed by two opposing parties (not necessarily political) that get together and try to understand each other's perspective and have open conversations regarding issues with the hope of resolving them. Edited to add: Source - dictionary.com