By Hon. Scott Benson, Detroit City Councilmember
If the last couple of weeks has taught us anything it’s that we need to learn to disagree better.
In the aftermath of the high-profile murder of a notorious MAGA media figure, and with the President of the United States (POTUS) heightening tensions by trying to blame the killing on the “radical left,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox showed bravery and leadership by standing up and saying no to hate. While POTUS’ inflammatory rhetoric is not going to unite a country that is on the edge, Governor Cox is one of the few high-profile Republicans who is actively trying to dial the temperature down.
Cox was urging people not to play the blame game, and that the shooter was the only person responsible for this heinous crime. In other words, he was doing what a decent and good leader does at a time like this; dialing the temperature down, while POTUS is doing the exact opposite.
Cox was chair of the National Governors Association when he launched an initiative called Disagree Better. Now an independent nonprofit, Disagree Better uses campaigns, partnerships, and real conversations to show what respectful disagreement looks like in action. It offers tools and resources to build meaningful, constructive dialogue. It also has a toolkit so parents can teach their children these important skills. As the organization’s motto says – democracy is disagreement. And as I like to say, successful democracy is disagreement without violence.
Disagree Better urges people to be curious, not caustic. It teaches people to respect the opinion of others, rather than shout them down. Disagreement is not an act of war, but a way to learn. It isn’t necessarily about being nicer to each other, but it is about finding a way to use disagreement to move toward compromise and solutions to the problems we face as a country. See President Obama and former House Speaker John Boehner.
Today, too much of the discourse around politics is toxic. We talk over and yell at each other. We want to “win” every political argument, no matter the cost. And social media is not helping, as we are forced to sort through disinformation and distortions in search of the truth. Polarization has become a political strategy, deepening with each day that passes while we have political leaders who paint each other as mortal enemies.
This past week I heard a lot of pundits and elected officials saying, “this is not what our country is about,” but that showed a great lack of historical understanding and perspective. The Black community is all too familiar with political violence, domestic terrorism and murder. Historically, our community has experienced a disproportionate amount of all three. Political violence and domestic terrorism have been used to deny us our rights, our dreams, and our economic security. From overt acts of terror, like lynchings, to assassinations like those of Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers, the Black community has been the target of deliberate politically motivated violence and murder for generations.
What concerns me is that POTUS and his Cabinet members are pushing us further away from the American ideal and now punishing Americans for expressing their views about this murder. The American ideal encompasses the rights that we as Americans should enjoy and are enumerated in the Declaration of Independence as – “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The rights that we have fought wars over, and that our government SHOULD protect. The right to free speech, freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly. The right to question our government. The right to hold a viewpoint different from your neighbor. The right to disagree.
The notorious media figure’s views were often provocative, laced with rhetoric that was racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic. His often crude and demeaning insults targeted the most vulnerable among us – immigrants, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized communities. He was not the model for learning to disagree better, but he was utilizing his American right to freedom of speech, and no one should be murdered for exercising their American rights. See Maceo Snipes, 1946.
To paraphrase FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, “A single disturbed individual’s inexcusable act of political violence should not justify broader censorship, POTUS’s administration is increasingly using government power to suppress lawful expression. Giving up the right to speak freely means accepting that those in power, not the people, will define the boundaries of debate in a free society.”
Until we learn to disagree better in this country and return to listening to each other, asking questions about how one has arrived at their views, and using disagreement to find solutions, we are only going to remain deeply divided. A majority of the public is clear that they are over the bickering. This is going to take difficult conversations, and we cannot be afraid to have them. We all need to take the words of Governor Cox to heart and “learn to disagree better.”
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