Bayh is right. But now, those types of dinners would probably result in one large food fight.

Civility is gone in our nation's capital. Yeah, members of Congress refer to each other as "my distinguished colleague," but only because congressional rules say they have to.

If they don't, they can have their words "taken down," causing them to lose the privilege of speaking on the floor of the chamber for the rest of the day. (Although in 1995, former Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) asked the Speaker in the chair if she had to refer to Rep. "Duke" Cunningham [R-Calif.] as a gentleman if he was not one.)

It's one of the reasons why policymaking has ground to a halt. Now, you don't simply disagree with someone. You demonize them. They become evil.

Take the relationship between Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and President Trump.

Waters once said during a speech, "I will go and take Trump out tonight."

For his part, Trump said that Waters has a "very low IQ."

Think those two can sit across a table from each other and negotiate?

Now, granted, things are not as bad as they were in 1838, when one House member killed another in a duel or when one House member killed another with a cane, but the citizens of Montana did elect Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte last year even though he had body slammed a reporter to the ground.

While things may not have gotten very physical yet, just wait.

We've had leaders who have questioned whether a president of the United States was born in this country.

During the last campaign, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) called Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton "mentally impaired."

And it goes on and on.

There are many causes for the lack of civility. The House and Senate are spending less time in Washington, so personal relationships between members are problematic. Some weeks, the House delays votes until 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and goes home on Thursday.

And during the time they're in Washington, members are holding fundraisers.

So, members of Congress aren't having the kinds of dinners that Evan Bayh recalls.

Gerrymandering has resulted in fewer marginal districts, so more members are either solidly liberal or conservative. A rock-hard liberal could easily think that some rock-hard conservative is whacko.

Social media has resulted in a "gotcha" mentality. People can go on Twitter and post a comment at the spur of the moment and hours later regret what they posted.

Politicians who are vying for media attention are celebrated when they get outrageous. When they get outrageous, videos of their interviews go viral.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) in the past would have been ignored by much of the country. But King likes to insult immigrants, so videos of his interviews are all over the internet and he's become a darling of the anti-immigrant crowd.

In normal times, people might look to the President of the United States to set an example for the rest of Washington to follow.

But in case you haven't noticed, these ain't normal times.

Trump recently referred to Chuck Todd, host of "Meet the Press," as a "sleeping son of a bitch."

He's called Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) "flakey."

Trump has had a running feud with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He once tweeted that McCain graduated last in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy, ending the tweet with the word "dummy."

Politicians are human, despite what some people say. And sometimes, the key to policymaking is not an agreement on a set of principles, but the personal relationships between politicians.

Take the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001," the education overhaul bill enacted during the George W. Bush administration. Was there a consensus between policymakers on the problems facing elementary and secondary education?

No, there was not.

To a large degree, the bill was driven by personal relationships, particularly the relationship between the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and former Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), who, at the time, headed the House Education and Workforce Committee.

The liberal Kennedy and the solid Republican didn't agree on much. But through the strength of their friendship, they were able to forge a compromise on a huge bill.

Can you see Senate Banking Committee ranking Democrat Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) sitting down with House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) to forge a compromise on financial services legislation that could be accepted by both houses?

It could happen, but don't count on it.

David Baumann

David Baumann is a correspondent-at-large for CU Times. He can be reached at [email protected].