All living former Michigan executives teamed up to discuss civility with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy Wednesday. Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm remotely joined former Govs. Rick Snyder, James Blanchard and John Engler at the Lansing Hilton DoubleTree to demonstrate the value of communicating clearly, respectfully, and truthfully in a hotly contested political environment.

Roop Raj, Fox 2 Detroit anchorman and host, moderated the bipartisan meeting, which came amid wide public concerns over censorship, cancellations, and doxxing, as well as both unsuccessful and successful assassination attempts on politicians, activists, podcasters and reporters.

“I am eager to soothe my own raging beast by having a civil conversation with three governors who know the importance of respect and bipartisanship even as we may disagree about the president,” Granholm, a Democrat, said to a panel that included fellow Democrat Blanchard and Republicans Snyder and Engler.

The four governors took turns making statements before turning to questions from Raj and audience members.

The event was organized by the Michigan Civility Coalition, a group that includes Michiganders for Civic Resilience, the Oakland University Center for Civic Engagement, the Democracy Defense Project, and the Mackinac Center. In another nod to bipartisan control of government, the event received support from the Carter Center and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, organizations named for two presidents who waged a bitter campaign in the 1976 election, which took place in the wake of the toppling of the historically popular Nixon adminstration in the Watergate affair.

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