"A Prayer for Our Enemies" with Executive Director of republicEn.org and former Congressman Bob Inglis

In this episode, David Millstone and Stephan Dweck speak with Bob Inglis, a former GOP congressman turned climate change activist, about the intersection of conservatism and climate action. They discuss the challenges of communicating climate change to conservative audiences, the importance of political courage, and the role of personal experiences and faith in shaping one's views on environmental issues. Inglis emphasizes the need for a new language around climate change that resonates with conservative values and the potential for optimism in addressing these challenges. The conversation also touches on the current state of the GOP and the importance of leadership in political discourse.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Bob Inglis emphasizes the importance of political courage in Congress.
• How the language of climate change needs to be accessible to conservatives.
• Personal experiences, especially family influences, can shift perspectives on climate change.
• Faith plays a significant role in Inglis's approach to climate activism.
• Optimism is crucial in climate messaging to engage conservatives.
• Inglis's organization, RepublicEN, aims to present climate solutions in a conservative framework.
• The GOP is not monolithic; many Republicans care about climate change.
• Effective communication requires understanding the audience's values and concerns.
• Courage in politics often means risking one's position for the greater good.
• The founding fathers anticipated challenges to democracy and prepared for them.

Guest:

BOB INGLIS is the Executive Director of republicEn.org. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1992, having never run for office before. He represented Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, from 1993-1998, unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings in 1998, and then returned to the practice of commercial real estate law in Greenville, S.C.

In 2004, he was re-elected to Congress and served until losing re-election in the South Carolina Republican primary of 2010.

In 2011, Inglis went full-time into promoting free enterprise action on climate change and launched the Energy and Enterprise Initiative (“E&EI”) at George Mason University in July 2012. In the fall of 2014, E&EI rebranded to become republicEn.org.

For his work on climate change, Inglis was given the 2015 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. He appears in the film Merchants of Doubt and in the Showtime series YEARS of Living Dangerously (episodes 3 and 4), and he’s spoken at TEDxBeaconStreet and TEDxJacksonville.

Inglis served as a Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics in 2011, a Visiting Energy Fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in 2012, and Resident Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics in 2014.

Inglis grew up in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, went to Duke University for college, met and married his college sweetheart, graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law and practiced commercial real estate law in Greenville, S.C., before and between his years in Congress.  Bob and Mary Anne Inglis have five children (a son and four daughters). They live on a small farm in northern Greenville County, South Carolina.

Wikipedia

rupublicEn Website

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About the Producer: Michelle Simone Miller is an actress producer of Every Day Courage and host of the top-ranked podcast ⁠⁠Mentors on the Mic⁠⁠, where she interviews entertainment industry professionals about how they got their start and built lasting careers. Mentors on the Mic Instagram