Pew Charitable Trusts and Disagree Better Event Models Civil Dialog Through Disruptive News Cycle
WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, February 24, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Last week, the Pew Charitable Trusts and Disagree Better brought together two Republican governors and one Democratic governor for a public conversation examining how elected leaders can debate consequential issues in a civil manner while preserving the integrity of their policy positions.
The event could easily have been missed. It unfolded as Washington’s attention was pulled toward a contentious Supreme Court decision tied to tariffs and the political crosscurrents that flared in the run-up to the National Governors Association’s convening, where a dispute over White House invitations became a proxy fight over tradition, status and partisan grievance.
That context, however, was the point. All three governors argued that public and civic institutions along with traditions and norms are under stress at precisely the moment when Americans most need proof that disagreement can be aired directly, handled respectfully and turned into workable policy.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, as well as founder and honorary chair of Disagree Better, was joined by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican and chair of the National Governors Association, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who serves as honorary chair of Disagree Better and vice chair of the NGA. NPR “Morning Edition” host Steve Inskeep moderated the discussion.
Pew president and CEO Susan K. Urahn opened the event by calling civil political discourse a foundational capability of a strong republic. The topic, she added, is particularly pertinent as the country approaches its 250th anniversary. Americans may disagree on many things, she said, but the democratic challenge is whether those disagreements can be navigated with respect, trust and a commitment to “get things done.”
Urahn pointed to data that underscores the fragility of public confidence and the intensity of partisan sorting. According to Pew Research, only 17% of the public say they trust the federal government to do what is right “all” or “most” of the time, while large shares of Americans perceive Republicans and Democrats as disagreeing not only on plans and policies but on basic facts. She also cited findings indicating widespread concern that politically motivated violence is increasing.
Yet she urged the audience not to treat polarization as the whole story. Many Americans still trust neighbors enough to leave them a key, she said. Many still want the United States to lead in scientific advancement. And many say it is important to discuss both America’s achievements and failures as part of the 250th anniversary.
The forum’s organizers framed the event as a practical experiment to explore what leaders can do to model disagreement that is not performative, and that does not require either side to pretend the differences are trivial.
Inskeep opened with a question that sounded light but landed as a test of political temperature. Would the governors like to go to dinner together this weekend?
TRADITIONS MAY MATTER MOST IN TIMES OF UPHEAVAL
The setup was a nod to a real dispute stemming from the White House dinner invitation controversy. The episode became a microcosm of how quickly symbolic gestures can harden into partisan narratives that can fracture institutional traditions.
Stitt, describing the NGA as an organization founded in 1908 under President Theodore Roosevelt, said governors work best when they preserve relationships across administrations, because states are deeply interdependent with the federal government.
“Around 40% of our dollars come from the federal government,” he said, arguing that governors cannot afford to treat Washington as an enemy regardless of party.
But Stitt also framed the dinner dispute as a line-drawing moment. A president can host any dinner he wants, he said, but the NGA should not sponsor an event if not all governors are included.
“If it’s not going to include all governors, then it can’t be called a National Governors Association event,” Stitt said. “There’s a White House dinner and the president can invite whoever he wants. It’s just not an NGA dinner.”
Moore praised Stitt’s leadership, noting that crisis reveals character. He described the episode as “an unfortunate turn,” arguing that the tradition of inviting all governors had long served as a visible reminder that the federation still functions even when national politics turns harsh.
“In times of chaos, what we’ve seen from the NGA is calm,” Moore said. “In times of confusion, what we’ve seen from the NGA is collaboration.”
Defining himself an “institutionalist,” Cox warned that the country has for some time now engaged in too much “fence tearing,” as he explained the reference to the “Chesterton’s fence” parable about why institutions should not be dismantled until people understand the reason they were built.
His point was that many of the guardrails Americans once assumed were permanent, including traditions, norms, civic organizations, expectations of restraint, are now too easily viewed as disposable.
A former NGA chair, Cox illustrated the fragility of those norms recounting the consequences he faced participating in the tradition of toasting the president at a White House dinner. Cox said he raised a glass with President Joe Biden, only to see the photograph later weaponized in campaign messaging during the primaries prior to his reelection in 2024.
Even so, he said he did not regret telling Biden publicly that he wanted him to succeed, because national success should outrank partisan satisfaction.
“If he’s successful, that means America’s successful,” Cox said. “And I’m an American first.”
A CASE FOR FOR SERVICE....AND CIVIL DISAGREEMENT
Moore argued the country is suffering from a basic civic deficit. Americans have stopped knowing each other, and have grown “way too comfortable” inside ideological “silos.”
He credited his military service with helping him understand how proximity can break stereotypes. The military, he said, pulls together people who might never otherwise share a table — and teaches them to see one another as teammates rather than avatars of political identity.
That logic is now shaping policy in Maryland, he said. Moore described a statewide “service year” option for high school graduates, offering a paid pathway for young people to serve in areas they choose — youth development, veterans services, the environment, support for older adults and other causes.
“We’re not going to tell you how to serve,” Moore said. “We’re just asking you to serve.”
Participants receive a stipend they can put toward college, a vehicle, or other needs, he said. But the deeper intent is to build relationships that cut across lines of race, geography and ideology.
“Service will save us,” Moore said.
PRACTICAL COLLABORATION AND HEALTHY TRIBES
Stitt argued that governors, unlike many national figures, are structurally pushed toward practical collaboration. He described the NGA as a place where governors learn operational best practices from one another — and where relationships allow leaders to move beyond caricature.
Coming from the business world, Stitt said, he relied on models borrowed from other states, including the idea of installing a chief operating officer to help run state government. He also described how policy conversations around energy and infrastructure become more realistic when governors speak directly rather than through national media narratives.
He cited permitting reform as an example of emerging agreement. Governors in different regions are confronting the same reality that major infrastructure projects can take far too long to approve, regardless of political ideology.
Cox widened the lens, arguing the problem extends beyond politics into social structure. Americans are lonelier than they have been in generations, he said, and many of the community organizations that once built cross-cutting relationships have weakened.
Absent those “healthy tribes,” Cox said, Americans default to “the wrong tribes” that arise and are shaped online by algorithms that reward outrage and reduce politics to performance.
“The algorithms reward the loudest voices and the most extreme voices,” Cox said, arguing that a relatively small share of Americans clustered on ideological fringes can dominate the perceived national conversation.
Disagree Better, he stated, is an attempt to flip the political assumption that civility is a losing strategy. He described a joint message he recorded with a political opponent during an earlier campaign, in which both candidates acknowledged disagreements while affirming shared commitments to the state and to accepting election results.
The message went viral, Cox said, and was later tested in academic research that suggested it could reduce polarization and lower support for political violence.
The lesson, Cox argued, is that public displays of respectful disagreement can be politically rewarded. Leaders across sectors can help reinforce those incentives by celebrating collaboration rather than punishing it.
Moore acknowledged that many Americans experience the current period as unsettled and tense. But he urged perspective, invoking Maryland’s place in the nation’s history — from the bloodshed at Antietam to the legacies of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass — as evidence that the country has endured darker moments.
“If you know your history, you have a context of the moment that we are in right now,” Moore said. “And it doesn’t feel as dark.”
Lane Cooper
Cooper Research Associates
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