Tennessee’s Bill Lee and Kentucky’s Andy Beshear are rivals. They should work together. (2024)

A Bill Lee-Andy Beshear collaboration on modeling civil discourse could go a long way for a majority of Americans who do not feel represented by the extremes in either of their parties.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned his residents not to travel south to Tennessee just a few weeks after the COVID pandemic emerged in the states.

The Democrat was at odds with his Republican counterpart Gov. Bill Lee over coronavirus restrictions and because Volunteer State deaths in late March 2020 numbered three times greater than in the Bluegrass State.

"We have taken very aggressive steps to try to stop or limit the spread of the coronavirus to try to protect our people, but our neighbors from the south, in many instances, arenot," said Beshear, according to a story in The Louisville Courier Journal, a sister publication of The Tennessean.

Four years later, the pandemic is over, although COVID has lingered, and Beshear is coming to Tennessee on a political mission to talk at a June 21 event called “Championing Reproductive Freedom" and taking on his southern neighbor's near total abortion ban on Lee's home turf.

As remote as the odds might sound, it would be an opportunity for Lee to offer an olive branch to Beshear on the issues they do agree upon. It sounds bonkers, perhaps, but hear me out because the Tennessee governor recently opened a door to finding common ground with his political opponents.

Can we get Lee and Beshear on stage for a 'Disagree Better' convo?

On May 14, Lee spoke on stage at the Omni Hotel in downtown Nashville with fellow Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah for the National Governors Association's "Disagree Better" presentation.

“I’m not an expert on civility, and I don’t have this figured out any more than a lot of people do − but I want to. It’s very much part of what I want to be as a person,” said Lee, according to a report in The Tennessean. “To exercise and model this idea of treating people with equal dignity that I believe we all share − I think it can be done.”

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Cox, the NGA chair, has famously touted Disagree Better and given interviews with his Democratic counterpart Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado about how they can come together on some issues, disagree on others and still respect each other's humanity.

In fact, Cox and Polis appeared as guests on the March 27 episode of the "You Might Be Right" podcast hosted by former Tennessee governors Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, and Bill Haslam, a Republican.

Who was missing on stage with Lee for that NGA presentation was a Democrat with whom he could model thoughtful disagreement and creative ways to find common ground.

Calling your neighbor, Andy Beshear.

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Admittedly, some topics may be difficult to broach such as abortion policy or the guilty verdict of former President Donald Trump on Thursday.

But Polis and Cox said on the podcast that governors of both political parties see common ground on the issue of housing affordability, for example. That is also true for Tennessee as it is for Kentucky.

Just as important is economic development and the investments of Ford and SK Innovations in both Kentucky and Tennessee that are creating nearly 11,000 jobs and spurring the economies of regions.

Both governors are national figures who could decrease division

Lee and Beshear would be fascinating on stage.

Both are highly partisan. Both govern in a state with Republican super majorities. Both were comfortably reelected to a second term in office.

Finally, they are both national figures.

Lee visited the southern U.S. border with other governors who sent members of the National Guard units with the aim of providing security assistance to the U.S. Border Patrol. Immigration is the top issue facing the U.S., according to citizens polled by Gallup.

Earlier this year, Beshear created a political action committee called In This Together to "elect more Democrats in swing states and Republican strongholds," according to The Associated Press.

They have plenty to disagree on and the polarized nature of our politics and the upcoming presidential election are already disruptive and divisive.

That's why their collaboration on modeling civil discourse, respect and humanizing one another could go a long way for a majority of Americans who do not feel represented by the extremes in either party.

What civility is and what it isn't and why it matters

If our elected officials are going to discuss civility and respect, they need to model it, not just talk about it.

Nearly seven years ago, The Tennessean launched the Civility Tennessee campaign to promote, model and encourage civil discourse, and the principles have guided our editorial work since then, from the way we comment on issues to how we engage communities in Nashville and across the state of Tennessee.

Civility is not about acquiescence, subjugation or compromising one's values. Democracy is messy and can be loud and sometimes critical. It is, however, about taking actions and steps that may be uncomfortable, but could lead to finding greater common ground, understanding and forgiveness.

Governors Haslam and Bredesen might consider inviting them on their podcast. Consider this an invitation for Lee and Beshear to appear on mine: Tennessee Voices, which emerged out of the COVID pandemic and recently exceeded 400 episodes.

Since Beshear's comments in 2020 about avoiding travel to Tennessee, neighbors have spent time getting reacquainted with each other, and it's a perfect time for a Tennessean and Kentuckian to seek to do the same.

David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He isan editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts theTennessee Voices videocastand curates theTennessee VoicesandLatino Tennessee Voicesnewsletters. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him atdplazas@tennessean.comor find him on X at@davidplazas.