Some have called for a change in Washington following the shooting in the city of Tucson in Arizona 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.
President Barack Obama“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”
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.
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