Disagree Better

Disagreeing Better In Nashville

On May 14, 2024, NGA Chair Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee collaborated for the latest Disagree Better event.

Centered on the theme of building dialogue skills and fostering positive contact, the Nashville event featured panel discussions with bipartisan experts, and keynote addresses from Moral Courage College Founder and CEO Irshad Manji, and Citizen University Co-Founder and CEO Eric Liu, along with the release of Disagree Better: A Parenting Toolkit.

Speakers and attendees also worked together on a service project in coordination with Comfort Cases, an organization that assembles and distributes care packages for children entering the foster care system.

Readouts and session videos are available on this page.

“We can disagree and stand firm for our beliefs and principles, but we should never forget the dignity of the other human being. I’m proud to join Governors across the nation in demonstrating that civility is not a weakness – it’s the Tennessee Way and the American Way.” – Governor Bill Lee

Americans need to disagree better. And by that we don’t mean that we need to be nicer to each other, although that’s helpful. We need to learn to disagree in a way that allows us to find solutions and solve problems instead of endlessly bickering.

An “exhausted majority” of Americans want this, and the science is clear about interventions that reduce polarization. As doers and builders, Governors are in a unique position to model what healthy conflict looks like.

The Disagree Better initiative will look at the problems of polarization, elevate the solutions that groups around the country are already implementing, and feature Governors showing what disagreeing better looks like. Through public debates, service projects, public service announcements and a variety of other tactics, Americans will see a more positive and optimistic way of working through our problems.

Disagree Better is an effort to show that as Americans, we can work through our differences to find solutions to the most difficult problems facing our states and our nation. This effort includes a series of public-facing efforts, assisted by NGA and chosen from a toolkit of interventions that are customizable for each state/governor. These strategies include:

• Hosting a service project within your communities, potentially with your state Legislature and their spouses from both sides of the aisle.
• Recording an ad with a neighboring governor from a different party, a legislator from the opposing party, or a campaign opponent. NGA Chair Utah Gov. Cox, a Republican, and NGA Vice Chair Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, explain more in this video.
• Recording a brief civic education ad, explaining that our nation’s founding and the Constitution were designed for people from different backgrounds and with different views.
• Writing an op-ed with someone from the other party on a topic of common ground.
• Hosting a debate at a college or university that models healthy conflict to future generations, including in partnership with organizations like Braver Angels and Bridge USA.