The air in American politics feels heavy these days. It’s thick with contempt, a fog that makes it hard to see common ground or even recognize our shared humanity. Into this strained atmosphere, the nation’s governors are attempting to inject a new, and frankly, radical idea: dignity.
The National Governors Association (NGA), in partnership with the nonprofit Dignity.Us, has just launched the Center for Dignity in Politics. Its mission is straightforward yet monumental. It aims to equip the chief executives of all 50 states with the practical tools to lower the temperature, model respectful leadership, and disagree without dehumanizing each other.
As someone who has spent two decades watching political rhetoric decay from spirited debate to performative hostility, I view this initiative with a mix of professional intrigue and personal skepticism. Can a “center” really teach politicians to be decent? The answer, I suspect, lies not in the seminar materials but in whether the participants are truly exhausted enough to change.
The center’s president, NGA CEO Dr. Brandon Tatum, frames the challenge bluntly. “The opportunity before today’s leaders is to demonstrate that disagreement can occur with dignity rather than humiliation, contempt or violence,” he stated. His words point to a stark reality we’ve all witnessed. Policy disputes now routinely escalate into personal annihilation. The center’s goal is to make governors the national counterweight to that trend.
The timing is strategic. With 39 gubernatorial elections this November, a massive wave of new or returning governors will take office in 2025. The center plans to meet them at the starting line. It will offer what amounts to a civics boot camp for the 2025 political season, providing training on everything from crisis communication to crafting speeches that don’t rely on demonizing opponents.
At its core are four concrete outcomes:
- Create a new culture with tools like the Dignity Index, a framework for measuring respectfulness in public speech
- Define dignified leadership as a measurable standard
- Track impact through research and a new “Dignity Barometer” poll to gauge civic trust in each state
- Aim to build a national, cross-partisan cohort of leaders who hold each other accountable
- Provide training on crisis communication
- Encourage crafting speeches that promote dignity
This is not the NGA’s first foray into this arena. The center builds directly on the “Disagree Better” campaign launched by Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox. That effort, now an independent nonprofit, has been a quiet experiment in modeling healthier conflict. “I’m more convinced than ever that there is an exhausted majority ready and able to change our political culture,” Cox told me last year. His initiative proved there is an appetite, and now the Center for Dignity aims to institutionalize the recipe.
The new center has enlisted heavyweight founding chairs, including Tim Shriver, co-creator of the Dignity Index. Shriver brings a lifetime of work bridging divides through Special Olympics. In our conversation, he emphasized the practicality of the mission. “This new center stands to call on our elected leaders to treat each other with dignity while also providing practical strategies and resources,” he said. It’s about moving from abstract virtue to daily practice.
Perhaps the most fascinating partnership is with Matter Neuroscience, a group that studies the science of human connection. Together, they are relaunching “The Party Line,” a project that connects public telephones in two different cities, inviting strangers to talk. The NGA will analyze these raw, unmediated conversations to understand how curiosity can cut through political division. It’s a humble admission: to fix political discourse, we must first remember how to talk to one another as people.
The bipartisan endorsements are telling. Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, the NGA Chair, praised the center for promoting a “unifying way of thinking.” Maryland’s Democratic Governor Wes Moore, the NGA Vice Chair, emphasized that “delivering results is not a partisan issue.” Their shared support signals a rare consensus that the current state of affairs is untenable for governance.
Yet, the obstacles are formidable. The incentives of the digital media ecosystem, fundraising imperatives, and primary election dynamics all reward confrontation, not civility. A governor who practices restraint may be hailed nationally but risk being labeled weak by their base back home. The center’s success will hinge on giving leaders the armor to withstand that pressure—providing them with data to show that dignified engagement actually builds more durable public trust.
As the 2025 political season begins to take shape, the Center for Dignity in Politics represents a fascinating bet. It is a bet that a critical mass of state leaders, from both parties, now see the corrosive nature of contempt as a greater threat to their power and purpose than any political opponent. It bets that the “exhausted majority” among voters will reward those who lead with respect.
Only time will tell if this becomes a transformative chapter in American political culture or a well-intentioned footnote. But in a era defined by broken discourse, the mere attempt to provide tools for repair is a story worth watching closely. The governors are now on the clock to prove that dignity is not a sign of weakness, but the ultimate test of strength.
