Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is not optimistic about the future of the United States of America. But he is hopeful.
Cox took the stage as chairman of the National Governors Association for the final time on Friday, not to bid farewell to his chosen “Disagree Better” initiative, but to deliver a call to action for the 13 governors and several hundred state and federal influencers that were present.
“We’ve gotten really, really good at tearing things down,” Cox told attendees gathered at The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. “We need more builders. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.”
Hope, Cox explained, instead of optimism or pessimism, is the approach elected officials as well as everyday citizens must take to actively cross divides of misunderstanding and solve problems if the country is to avoid the worst outcomes of inaction.
“I am not optimistic about our country, and I don’t think any of us should be,” Cox said. “There is nothing that says that we are inevitably going to get better as a country, there is nothing that says that we aren’t going to continue to tear ourselves apart, there is nothing that says that we won’t inevitably have another civil war — it’s happened before and it can happen again. And it will happen again if we don’t do the work.”
Cox calls on governors to lead the way
But the events of Thursday and Friday that capped off a year of Cox’s “Disagree Better” campaign — which included ads with 21 governors, trainings on depolarization and service projects — gave the Beehive State’s first-term governor hope, he said, that there is a critical mass of people willing to do that very work.
“I’m hopeful because people in this room are not willing to let this happen to us,” Cox said. “We can make this a better place. We can love each other again. We can disagree without hating each other.”
The National Governors Association summer meeting featured a discussion with former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse about what institutions are needed to cultivate communities that can weather future technological disruption. It featured presentations from professors on the effectiveness of “Disagree Better” techniques in politics and education. It featured a conversation with actor Matthew McConaughey on countering the politics of fear. And it featured a surprise visit from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the clear divide between good and evil in foreign affairs.
The end of ‘Disagree Better’?
Following his speech, Cox passed the NGA chair’s gavel on to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who presented his own “Let’s Get Ready” initiative to improve how states measure learning outcomes in K-12 education.
During the conference, Polis frequently praised Cox for “Disagree Better,” saying it needs to become a “permanent part” of how governors lead and he expressed hope that Cox would keep the initiative alive apart from the NGA.
“The ‘Disagree Better’ initiative, of course, is even more important today than when when we began this work and I know it will live on and Gov. Cox will discuss the way and manner that that work will continue moving forward,” Polis said.
Since entering the position in July 2023, Cox has hosted events across the country to educate the governors on what leads to toxic political polarization and what tools can be used to reverse the trend. He has also filmed nearly two dozen videos of bipartisan pairings of governors modeling healthy dialogue.
The chairmanship gave the Utah governor a megaphone to propose an alternative to demeaning rhetoric and partisanship in political discourse. He brought the message to Washington, D.C., and the TED Talks stage.
Cox has also tried to bring “Disagree Better” home, in the form of measured solutions to culture war controversies and positive campaigning, but not without the message becoming a main point of criticism from his primary challengers on the right, and his general election opponent on the left.
On Friday morning, Cox admitted that implementing “Disagree Better,” particularly in the middle of an election, is difficult. But he insisted it is what Americans want and said he intends to continue his effort to spread it across the country.
“There’s no question that we’re pushing a rock uphill right now. But that’s how change happens. We have to do this work,” Cox said. “There’s a hunger for this. There’s a desperation out there.”
