U.S. Senator Katie Britt has called on political leaders to “consensually disagree” to better secure the country's future.

Rep. Britt (R-Montgomery County) spoke to University of Louisville students this week, encouraging the next generation to set a better example when it comes to political debate in America.

The ability to accept disagreement convincingly is rare today. The decline of our debate is hindering the future of our country, and social media is surely to blame. It will take the next generation to step up to reverse this trend. pic.twitter.com/ESKjbtwAff

— Senator Katie Boyd Britt (@SenKatieBritt) April 3, 2024

“I encourage building relationships based on both trust and respect,” Britt said. “Some of my best friends in the U.S. Senate are people with whom I disagree politically.”

The senator spoke about his experience with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) as an example of how to work well with people on opposite sides of the political divide.

“We became friends at freshman orientation in November and kept that friendship,” she says. “They don't explain this, but freshman senators are put in the basement of the Dirksen (Senator Office Building) — a place with cinderblock walls, no windows, no air conditioning. John and I were up there together. And as we were working, I told you, I was thinking, 'How do I approach this? How do I make a difference?' And he was doing the same thing. And we bonded, and when he finally got the courage to say, 'I have mental health issues, and I'm going to get help because treatment works,' he invited me to come visit him at Walter Reed.”

“And for him to trust me and be in that space with me was just incredibly humbling and something I'll never forget.”

Britt believes a more civil debate would lead to better solutions for the country.

“So whether it's John and Peter Welch from Vermont or Cory Booker from New Jersey, they are some of my best friends in the United States Senate. We may not agree with each other much politically, but we all took the same oath of office. We are all united under one flag. And we all love our country deeply, and that is more important than which side we're on,” she said.

“And by coming together in the same room and actually having those conversations, we've been able to find commonalities and overlaps that we may not have known we had. That's where we need to move forward.”

Yaffe is a contributing writer for Yellow Hammer News and hosts “The Yaffe Program” weekdays from 9-11 a.m. WhistlerYou can follow us on Twitter @Yaffe