Republican members of the US House of Representatives, dressed casually in jeans and sweaters, have been meeting this weekend in Baltimore for their annual policy retreat.
Topics under discussion include the budget, the deficit and their plans to repeal President Obama's health care package.
But after suspending Congress for a week in the wake of the tragic shootings in Tucson in Arizona, they are also using the opportunity to reflect on the state of politics in Washington.
The shooting of their colleague, Democrat Gabrielle Giffords has cast a long shadow. Congressman Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Whip, expressed the sentiments of many.
"We value life and we saw a friend get terribly injured in this process. People are going to look to one another very differently," he told reporters.
"It doesn't matter what we debate on the floor, I think the floor will change. The tone will be different, but the challenges will be greater. We still have philosophical differences."
But those philosophical differences seem deeper than ever in Washington these days. The ideological divide between the parties is substantial, and it has been expressed at times in inflammatory language.
Cry for unity
Following the events in Arizona, left-wing commentators have demanded more civility from their counterparts on the right. They have accused conservatives of irresponsibly using violent imagery, including gun targets, in their criticism of Democrats.
President Obama, in his speech at a memorial service for the victims of the Arizona shooting, asked Americans to use words that heal not wound at this time when "our discourse has become so sharply polarized."
He challenged America be as good as its children - like 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green who was killed in the shootings - imagine it to be.
"A more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make [the Arizona victims] proud," he said.
All of this has put Republicans on the defensive. Many outright disagree that divisive rhetoric is the pervasive problem that political analysts on cable news channels claim it to be.
Haley Barbour, the Republican Governor of Mississippi who is considering running for president in 2012 is one of them. He was a guest speaker at the retreat.
I asked him if he felt the tone at the retreat had changed - been elevated perhaps - in light of the shootings.
The question clearly aggravated him.
"I've been to a lot of these over the years, I never been to one that didn't have an elevated tone," he replied, with a stony face and a cold demeanour.
But will the calls to alter the discourse will impact the Republican caucus in the lead up to 2012?
"In what way? I mean to do you think it will make us all be for different policy. No Ma'am. I don't think so," Mr Barbour said.
But what about the rhetoric that was accused of being heated and inflammatory?
"There's certainly not any of that here," he replied.'Real' party differences
Perhaps not - the sessions were closed to the press, so it's difficult to know how the discussion is progressing behind closed doors.
Regardless, the political differences between Democrats and Republicans here are very real and very deep.
The bitterness of the last Congress - when members sparred over "death panels" and "job-killing" bills - is not going to simply evaporate.
And members like Michigan's Candace Miller won't change their opinion of the Obama administration overnight.
Moments after reflecting on the awful tragedy that befell her colleague, she shifted to criticism.
"The debt has been driven up by President Obama and the Democrat majority," she told reporters at the retreat.
"As a mother and a grandmother, I've watched for the last four years and said how dare the elected leaders of this country restrict the opportunities for the next generation by being incredibly selfish with all this out of control spending."
The shooting of Gabby Giffords has certainly put American politicians in a reflective mood. But that brief moment of bipartisan grief has done, it seems, little to bridge America's political chasm.
The question clearly aggravated him.
"I've been to a lot of these over the years, I never been to one that didn't have an elevated tone," he replied, with a stony face and a cold demeanour.
But will the calls to alter the discourse will impact the Republican caucus in the lead up to 2012?
"In what way? I mean to do you think it will make us all be for different policy. No Ma'am. I don't think so," Mr Barbour said.
But what about the rhetoric that was accused of being heated and inflammatory?
"There's certainly not any of that here," he replied.'Real' party differences
Perhaps not - the sessions were closed to the press, so it's difficult to know how the discussion is progressing behind closed doors.
Regardless, the political differences between Democrats and Republicans here are very real and very deep.
The bitterness of the last Congress - when members sparred over "death panels" and "job-killing" bills - is not going to simply evaporate.
And members like Michigan's Candace Miller won't change their opinion of the Obama administration overnight.
Moments after reflecting on the awful tragedy that befell her colleague, she shifted to criticism.
"The debt has been driven up by President Obama and the Democrat majority," she told reporters at the retreat.
"As a mother and a grandmother, I've watched for the last four years and said how dare the elected leaders of this country restrict the opportunities for the next generation by being incredibly selfish with all this out of control spending."
The shooting of Gabby Giffords has certainly put American politicians in a reflective mood. But that brief moment of bipartisan grief has done, it seems, little to bridge America's political chasm.
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