Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks at the Disagree Better Summit held at the Oklahoma City Memorial and Museum on Wednesday. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY – Gov. Kevin Stitt is urging Oklahomans to “disagree better” when they’re discussing controversial political topics or their differing faiths.
At an event derived from the Disagree Better initiative started by the National Governors Association, the Republican governor pushed Oklahomans to engage in civil discourse in political discussions.
Stitt serves as the vice chair of the NGA and spoke on two panels at Wednesday’s event at the Oklahoma City Memorial and Museum in tandem with its Better Conversations initiative, which offers tools for Oklahomans to engage in conversations on sensitive or controversial topics.
The national Disagree Better initiative , launched by former NGA chair Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in 2022, has a goal of helping Americans work through differences when it comes to hot button issues in the United States
Avoiding hateful rhetoric and listening during political conversations were major themes at the summit, that included lawmakers and higher education officials. The panels focused on topics like having conversations with people across political divisions, free speech at higher education institutions and navigating faith.
Speaking on a panel with Rep. Suzanne Schreiber, D-Tulsa, Stitt said it was important to model the way politics should be discussed across party lines.
“We may have a difference of opinion between each other, but we don’t have to do it hatefully, and we can argue,” Stitt said.
The two Oklahoma politicians, for instance, disagreed about a controversial immigration law and the topic of school choice.
Schreiber said both were instances where she felt legislation could have benefited from conversations like these.
But both found common ground when it came to social media’s role in promoting hateful rhetoric in political conversations.
“The important thing is to really sit down and get out of your assumptions that you may be seeing and assuming about someone that has a D or an R label,” Schreiber said. “Be curious and find out where they are coming from.”
Allyson Shortle, an associate professor of political science at University of Oklahoma, said Wednesday’s summit will not solve any problems all at once but is a starting place for Oklahoma.
Shortle said that events like the Disagree Better Summit demonstrate a growing distaste for hateful rhetoric in political discussions.
“I think we can see in a state like Oklahoma a lot of divisive rhetoric on the part of a few, but a real willingness of most people to reject those messages but still feel that the environment has shifted to a hostile one because of those few loud voices,” Shortle said.
She said many state legislators and Stitt have demonstrated that they are not willing to enter into “too negative” of dialogue and that the summit is encouraging more positive political conversations.
“At the end of the day, in order for a democracy to function and for local politics and state politics to function, there needs to be more trust and nobody’s going to trust each other if we’re all calling each other heathens or, you know, evil doers,” Shortle said.
Stitt was one of four Republican governors who attended the National Governor’s Association conference in July . The governors of Utah, Wyoming and Virginia also attended. In total, 13 governors attended with the other nine governors being Democrats.
Cox, who was NGA chair at the time, made a plea at the summer meeting asking the country’s governors to “not tear down” the institution of the NGA following low participation from fellow governors.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who currently serves as NGA chair, said at the July meeting that the Disagree Better initiative “is an important reminder to all of our fellow Americans that there’s a healthier and more productive way to deal with conflicting opinions.”
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