Disagree Better: Politics Across Divides. Utah Governor Spencer Cox

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Recently, during a public event at Utah's State Capitol, Governor Spencer Cox issued a stark warning: "Either we, the people, collectively decide we're going to stop hating our fellow Americans, or we'll start shooting each other." In our podcast, we hear why Governor Cox passionately believes that the country is heading in a dangerous direction with hyperpartisanship and political dysfunction and what he's doing about it with his Disagree Better Initiative. Spencer Cox, a Republican, is the 2023 Chair of the bipartisan National Governors Association. He selected "Disagree Better" to be the Association's current campaign. Through public debates, service projects, meetings, and public service announcements, Disagree Better brings together red and blue governors, looking at the problems of polarization and how to elevate solutions that Common Ground Committee and other groups in the bridging community are implementing.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Disagree Better is the catchy title of a new initiative that's aimed at trying to improve
0:04.8	the way we do politics in America. The idea for Disagree Better came from Spencer Cox of Utah,
0:12.4	who is this year's chair of the National Governors Association.
0:17.2	He's an unusual politician who believes that hyper-polarization and political dysfunction
0:22.3	lead people to hate each other, and we urgently need new ways to find common ground.
0:27.7	The easiest thing in the world for me as a Republican governor would be to watch Fox News every
0:34.0	night and then do exactly what they say the next morning. That's the easy way to govern,
0:40.7	and I believe it's the worst way to govern.
1:00.8	This is Let's Find Common Ground. I'm Richard Davies, and I'm Ashley Melntyte.
1:05.6	In this episode, an in-depth discussion with Spencer Cox.
1:10.2	Yes, and we begin with how governors both red and blue are working together on Disagree Better,
1:18.9	an initiative that promotes healthy conflict through debates, service projects,
1:23.8	and public service announcements by governors from both parties.
1:30.2	Well, Governor Spencer Cox, welcome to Let's Find Common Ground.
1:34.3	Thank you, Ashley. It's great to be with you today.
1:36.9	So let's first talk about Disagree Better.
1:40.5	Why did you launch this initiative, and how do we disagree better?
1:46.3	Well, this is part of the National Governors Association. I get to be the chair for a year,
1:52.0	a bipartisan organization with all of our governors, and every governor gets an initiative.
1:57.2	We were thinking about a health care. How do we reduce the cost of health care?
2:02.4	We were looking at energy prices and critical minerals, all these more traditional ideas,
2:09.6	and I just couldn't shake the feeling that we can't solve any of the big problems facing our
	...

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