Centralia Mayor Chris Cox spoke with the Missouri on Mic team at the Centralia Public Library in November. He’s got deep family roots in the community, and is approaching six years in the mayor’s office. After the 2024 Election, he thinks Americans need to focus more on what we’ve got in common.
Missouri on Mic is an oral history and journalism project documenting stories from around the state.
Chris Cox: I think, we're polarized in perception across the country, and what I mean by that is you would think there's a huge void — it's either right or your left. Right? You're either Republican or Democrat. And what I'll say is we have lifetime politicians on both sides of the aisle that represent us now in our nation. And to be quite honest with you, if you were to sit down, and I think it shows in some of the things that were on the ballot just recently ... I think there's a lot more of middle ground of the 80% of Americans.
Whether you're, whatever political affiliation you want to choose to be in, or you've been branded with, I think people want to use common sense for the most part and come together. And I think that's possible, because I think if you look at the vote and some of the things that were on the ballot, a lot of Republicans got voted in, but a lot of what you consider more liberal ... things on the ballot passed. So I don't think we're nearly as far apart and polarized opposites as what it comes up in the media. The media is a good example of that.
If you look at the poll numbers, if you don't do anything else — and this is what concerns me. I don't care who you are, what side of the bench you're on. The bottom line is, anytime you have polls out leading into an election, an election where the Presidential position, or any of any positions as far as that go, is in order with the turnout that there's going to be, and you are so far outside of the margin of error in your polls .... I think that pulls down the cloak of maybe people having an agenda in the media, in some medias, and it's not local. Typically, it gets further out, national, syndicated, you know, type stuff that they have an agenda that they're pushing. I don't know whether it's through the ownership versus reporting facts and letting people decide themselves.
And that's all I think I can do in the local government, is to make sure that we look at all of the facts and make decisions based upon that, that we can justify and can show facts to of why we did something.
I think people want to use common sense for the most part and come together.
Anna Colletto: What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing our country right now?
Chris Cox: I think just what I just spoke about is that polarization view that we're so far apart. ... How do we get together? I don't think we're that far apart - if we come together, and the logical thinking people of America, and those people get represented in that way, on both sides of the aisle. I think ... we have to fix that void, or that perception of that void.
I think we've been being sold a bill of goods that we're, it's either it's you against me or us against them. When it's, that's really not the case overall.
If you were to sit down and have conversations with the 80, 85% of the public that have common sense, or if you had that in your leadership within that we've elected to represent us, that's the question. That's what concerns me - that we get together like that.
