Trust starts with a chat

Tim Kaine dropped by the office this week. He wasn’t campaigning for re-election. He didn’t have an agenda. He didn’t have a complaint. He didn’t ask for anything except a little time. He was in the neighborhood and just wanted to chat. So chat we did.

We started with the Middleburg Film Festival. It was good to see you there. Then we moved to the issues that confront a senator from Virginia: the federal budget, sequestration, the economy of the commonwealth, the war on terrorism, presidential power and why members of Congress can’t get along.

Sen. Kaine had a simple theory about that last problem. Members of Congress don’t get along because they don’t know each other very well. And they don’t know how to talk to each other.

Kaine is trying to do something about that. He says he likes talking with his colleagues on the other side of the aisle. He works out in the gym with them. He attends faith-based breakfasts with them. He says these activities are about his personal development, not his politics.

The senator doesn’t talk like a senator. He’s friendly and personable, more like the pal you meet for coffee. He finds a way to relate by talking about family, the common bond among all people. My son is about to be deployed to Africa …. Your daughter is on a great adventure in Nepal? Parents can’t help but worry about their children, can they?

The conversation moves to that dysfunctional family known as Congress. He jokes about its latest approval rating – now 7 percent. “And that accounts for all our family and friends,” he laughs, quoting his Republican colleague John McCain.

Kaine doesn’t fret about the Republican majority in Congress. “We might actually get something done,” he says. He believes the Democrats need new leadership. But enough of that. Let’s talk about something more interesting than politics.

What Congress needs is a better conversation, a way for colleagues to come together and understand each other more.

We know. That sounds like a beauty queen’s hopes for world peace: absurdly optimistic and goodhearted, believing in a good world where everything works out for the best all the time. The world doesn’t work that way.

A better conversation may not bring world peace, but it may be a way for members of Congress to regain the trust of each other. With a 7 percent approval rating, you have to start somewhere. Our representatives can do worse than rediscovering the humanity that binds us together as Americans.

Tim Kaine dropped by the office to chat. Cynics will call his motives political. We call them being human. We have the feeling he knew that.

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