Utah Gov. Spencer Cox kicked off the first day of the National Governors Association’s summer meeting in Salt Lake City by examining how the technological revolution is shaping American society for the better and the worse.
On Thursday afternoon, Cox joined former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, who is currently the president of the University of Florida, to discuss how the near-constant presence of technology is amplifying political polarization. Cox ends his one-year term as chair of the nonpartisan organization on Friday.
“I think we do have to recognize that 100 years from now, when you look back at our moment, I don’t think we’re going to talk much about politics at all,” Sasse said.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox and former Sen. Ben Sasse have a discussion at the National Governor's Association meeting at the Grand America, on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
Sasse said much of that polarization is driven by the new ways technology allows us to consume information, which then drives political dialogue.
“When you think about the way we consume cable news and the stuff you all have to react to every day, there really is no audience watching,” Sasse said. “In the last two or three years, the most-watched political cable programming in America was Tucker Carlson, and he’s been fired for a year and a half. If you go back and look how many times he broke north of 1% of the public — it’s in single digits.”
“These cable news shows that we react to all the time never get 1% of the public watching,” he added. “We pretend these are big conversations that are happening in America. We have to be cognizant of the fact that the business model is to go narrow and deep and give lots of voice to the angriest people.”
Instead, Sasse explained, 98 of the 100 most-watched programs in America in 2023 were football games. The only non-football programs were the State of the Union Address and the Academy Awards.
Sasse also warned that it is imperative for policymakers to address the many ways technology can revolutionize education, because the current “factory model” is going to be rendered obsolete.
“The idea that you go to one institution 40 hours a week, and you’re mostly inside, you’re mostly sitting still, you’re mostly in receive mode, doesn’t fit anymore. At the end of the day,” Sasse said, “kids aren’t cogs they’re plants. And they have to grow toward the sun. We have to give them fertile enough soil that they’re going to learn enough.”
“We have to be raising our kids to be a hell of a lot grittier than what we’re turning out right now — to be able to navigate what they’re going to face not just when they’re 35 and 45, but when they’re 20 and 25.”
The marquee event for the two-day gathering will be an in-person speech from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will speak on Friday morning.