2023-2024 NGA Chair’s Initiative
Disagree Better
Americans are deeply concerned and exhausted by the hyperpartisanship and polarization in our country, and rightly so. We’ve forgotten how to persuade without hating each other. But our nation’s history shows there’s a better way, and we all need to re-learn how to 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
In the News
- Good Morning America: How one initiative is encouraging people to ‘Disagree Better’
- Deseret News: Bringing ‘disagree better’ home: Teaching kids to negotiate instead of fight
- The Tennessean: Republican governors Bill Lee and Spencer Cox say they want to forge alliance against partisan rancor
- Colorado Springs Gazette: Colorado Can Lead the Way to Disagree Better
- Strong Towns: America’s Governors Have a New Plan To Overcome Polarization
- Deseret News: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox takes ‘Disagree Better’ to the TED Talks stage
- Chronical of Philanthropy: The Commons: A Politician’s Crusade
- PBS Newshour: How governors are working on solutions amid intense political polarization
- Associated Press: Biden and Utah’s governor call for less bitterness and more bipartisanship in the nation’s politics
- Additional coverage…
Disagree Better: Healthy Conflict for Better Policy
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.
We know that conflict resolution takes work and involves difficult conversations. It’s much easier to sow division than to persuade or find solutions. But we also know that no one ever changed someone’s mind by attacking them.
Through healthy conflict, we’re confident that we can find common ground and improve our families, our communities and our nation. Together, we can disagree better.
– Utah Governor Spencer Cox, NGA Chair
Governor Videos
By breaking the cycle of conflict and personal attacks, Governors aim to remind Americans it’s possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
Inspiration & Action
We all have a role to play in overcoming toxic polarization. There are plenty of ways to get involved and do your part to help America Disagree Better.
Research & Resources
Dozens of groups are involved in depolarization work. Here are some of the individuals and organizations helping us learn to Disagree Better.
Meetings & Events
Governor Cox has been hosting events around the country designed to show that Americans can work through our differences.
about the Initiative
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.
Over the next year, we’ll host four NGA convenings across the country to expose Governors to the good work already happening and connect them with the leading organizations, so they can help elevate and accelerate such work in their states.
The goal is for Governors to model how to disagree better, setting an example and creating the permission structure and template for other public officials at every level to follow.
the Power of Service
The research is clear that participating in service activities breaks down barriers, lifts up others and improves mental health. As part of the Disagree Better NGA Initiative, Utah First Lady Abby Cox will be leading efforts to incorporate a service project at each of the four NGA convenings throughout the year.
NGA Disagree Better Library
Governors Cox and Lee Host Disagree Better Panel
Healing Divides Through Volunteerism and Service
Disagree Better – Architects, Not Arsonists
Working Together with Mutual Respect and Dignity
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Join Governors to Discuss Overcoming Political Division
Disagree Better In D.C.
Disagree Better – Together
Learning to Disagree Better
Disagree Better Speakers Explore the Question: What Do Universities Owe Democracy?
Supporters
NGA would like to thank the following organizations for supporting the Disagree Better Initiative