SALT LAKE CITY — Governor Spencer Cox is stepping into a prominent new national role.
On Friday, he was named chair of the National Governors Association, with Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis as the vice-chair.
With his new role leading the association made up of the nation's governors, Gov. Cox is also launching a new initiative that seeks to turn down the political heat.
"Our country is in trouble," Cox said in an interview with Utah reporters ahead of the initiative's launch. "We can't solve the biggest issues if we can’t even have a conversation."
The governor is pushing for people to "disagree better."
"We actually have to be in the room together. That’s not just politicians, that's families," he said. "It’s all of us. It’s being able to have these really, really critical conversations without hating each other."
Gov. Cox acknowledged a lot of the incendiary rhetoric comes from a national level, but he hopes his fellow governors can help turn the temperature down a bit and reduce political polarization headed into the next election cycle.
"Our hope is to provide some counter-programming to what we’re hearing at the national level," he said. "Hopefully, we’ll be able to have our presidential candidates engage with dignity and respect."
The National Governors Association is working with a number of organizations to roll out real-world applications of the concept, including the nonprofit Braver Angels which hosts debates and discussions and offers tips for people to talk those politically and ideologically different from themselves.
"It’s not about getting people to change their minds or necessarily come to agreement but reducing stereotype thinking, it’s clarifying where the disagreements are, and it’s ultimately building trust," said Braver Angels' Ciaran O'Connor. "Because if you trust somebody’s coming in good faith, even if you disagree about a lot of things, it’s going to turn you away from the more extreme, dehumanizing rhetoric that’s really undergirding this ideological polarization of which we’re all aware."
Gov. Cox acknowledges he is not perfect. Recently, he apologized for labeling members of Congress "imbeciles." He also insists this isn't about everyone needing to get along. He said it is appropriate to call out conspiracy theories and misinformation — but people should attack ideas and not people.
"We attack those ideas and we tear those ideas apart and we show why our ideas are better than those ideas. That is absolutely the right way to do it," he said. "Of course there are bad actors in this world, I'm not saying there aren’t. But I think we’ve gone to a further extreme where we feel attacked if there’s just an idea we feel is different than ours."
Asked by FOX 13 News what he would say to those who took a cynical approach to his "Disagree Better" initiative, the governor pushed back and said: "We have to start somewhere." He urged the "exhausted majority" of Americans to also speak up.
"We believe this is an existential issue and, as we’re headed into a very divisive political campaigning season, this is an opportunity for all of us as Americans to demand more and demand better of our politicians," he said.
