U.S. Sen. Katie Britt is calling on political leaders to “disagree agreeably” in order to better secure the future of the country.
Britt (R-Montgomery) spoke to University of Louisville students this week, encouraging the next generation to set a better example when it comes to political discourse in America.
The ability to disagree agreeably is rare nowadays. This decline in our discourse is hindering our nation’s future, and there’s no doubt that social media bears responsibility. It’s going to take the next generation stepping up to reverse this trend. pic.twitter.com/ESKjbtwAff
— Senator Katie Boyd Britt (@SenKatieBritt) April 3, 2024
“I encourage you on building relationships that are built on both trust and respect,” Britt said. “Some of my very best friends in the United States Senate are people who I don’t share political views with.”
The senator talked about her experiences with U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and used that as an example of getting along with those on the opposite side of the political divide.
“We became friends at freshman orientation in November and maintained that friendship through,” she said. “They don’t tell you this, but when you’re a new senator they put you in the basement of Dirksen (Senate Office Building), which means that you have cinderblock walls, no windows and a lack of air conditioning. Well, John and I were down there together. And as we work through, and I told you, as I was thinking about, ‘how am I approaching this, how am I going to make a difference?’ He was doing the same thing. And we bonded and when he was brave enough to say, ‘I have some mental health challenges and I am going to seek help, because treatment works.’ He invited me to Walter Reed to visit him.
“And I thought for him to trust me enough to be in that space with him is incredibly humbling and something I will absolutely never forget.”
Britt believes more civil discourse can lead to better solutions for the country.
“So whether it’s John, Peter Welch of Vermont, or whether it is Cory Booker of New Jersey,” she said. “These are some of my greatest friends in the United States Senate. And while we might not agree on much politically, we all took the same oath of office. We’re all united under one flag. And we all have a deep love for our country. That supersedes which side of the aisle that we fall on.
“And by getting in the same room, having real conversations, we ended up finding common ground that we otherwise would have never known we had and where those things overlap. That’s where you have to march forward.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
