今年有100多万人参加了明尼苏达州立博览会——吃猪排、评估著名的黄油雕塑以及与获奖农场合影动物。
但是明尼苏达州的迪恩·菲利普斯和南达科他州的达斯丁·约翰逊代表在寻找别的东西:一个找到共同点的机会，并证明该国政治中的文明并没有灭绝。
在国会大厅里党派之争比以往任何时候都更加丑陋的时候，蓝色州民主党人菲利普斯和特朗普国家共和党人约翰逊正在试行一项新颖的两党政治交流计划，其特点是联合访问彼此的地区，并与不同的选民举行亲密的联合市政厅会议。
“国会里有很多好人，”约翰逊在明尼苏达州的州博览会上告诉美国广播公司，两个人一起倒了鲜奶，参观了一个装满怀孕牲畜的谷仓，然后骑着马走下了一个巨大的滑梯。
菲利普斯说:“你不能和你不信任的人一起工作，也不能信任你不认识的人。
两位议员都是众议院问题解决者核心小组的成员，该小组由国会中温和的寻求共识者组成，他们成功地促成了围绕新冠肺炎救助的妥协，并围绕两党基础设施协议展开了辩论。
尽管菲利普斯和约翰逊在政府支出、医疗保健和堕胎问题上存在巨大分歧，但他们表示，希望积极倡导文明和体面将为华盛顿更有成效的立法进程奠定基础。
“声音最大的人真的希望我们分裂。我认为大多数成员都是想找到共同点的好人，但是，活着的人，声音最大的人——他们得到了不成比例的关注，”约翰逊说。
在明尼阿波利斯的一个郊区，菲利普斯和约翰逊召集了来自不同政治派别的七名选民——自由派和保守派，他们彼此都不认识——进行了一次由无党派非营利组织“勇敢的天使”主持的对话，该组织由明尼苏达大学教授兼特许婚姻治疗师比尔·多尔蒂创建。
该组织成立于2016年大选后，致力于突破两极分化的政治言论，在基层建立两党信任。它促进了全国1000多次对话。
多尔蒂告诉美国广播公司新闻，“我已经做了40年的婚姻治疗，我从未见过政治像现在这样侵入婚姻。“我们似乎比以往任何时候都有更多的事情在分裂我们。”
约翰逊和菲利普斯成为第一批参加由《勇敢的天使》主持的对话的国会议员，他们坐在参与者中间，加入了坦率的对话，讨论政治两极分化如何导致家庭关系紧张、邻里分裂和全国社区动荡。
自称保守派的尼克·埃尔珀丁(Nick Erpelding)表示，当他14年前与中间偏左的妻子结婚时，政治“远非首要话题”。
“今天你去任何地方都不能没有人看着你，在他们甚至不知道你是谁之前，他们就想知道，好吧，这个人是接种了疫苗，还是带着枪?”他说。
自称是自由派参与者的迈克尔说，他家里的一些关系非常紧张，以至于他的儿子看不到他的堂兄弟。
“这太悲惨了，”他说。“我与之交谈的一些人想知道，如果我们不阻止这种情况并找到更好的方法，我们能发动内战吗?”
在多尔蒂的带领下——他切断了与会者和议员之间的相互干扰——对话甚至没有提到前总统唐纳德·特朗普或总统乔·拜登的名字。
相反，使用“医疗保健”和“两极分化”等提示，参与者倾听个人故事和观点，而不是相互辩论或挑战。
这其中包括约翰逊和菲利普斯，他们谈到了自己的家庭以及与国会山的同事之间的挫折，后者对名人比对妥协更感兴趣。
“如果你对人们在生活和社区中真正关心的事情提出问题，他们不会马上去问政治家，”多赫蒂解释了该组织的方法。
总之，该组织没有找到一种方法使医疗保健更加负担得起，也没有让共和党人和民主党人团结起来抗击新冠肺炎大流行。
但他们在离开谈话时，对小组中的其他人和他们的观点给予了更多的赞赏。
另一位保守派参与者艾琳·布鲁姆(Erin Brumm)表示:“我们更像，而不是不同。“这有点令人惊讶，但很有启发性。”
“我向他学习。他向我学习，”菲利普斯谈到约翰逊和他们在明尼苏达州的经历时说。“如果这只是我们在州博览会上隐喻性地种下的一点种子……那是一个非常好的开始。”
菲利普斯说，他计划很快访问约翰逊的选区，两人都表示，他们已经召集了国会办公室举行类似的研讨会。明尼苏达州之行部分由两党政策中心组织，该中心表示，计划在今秋和冬季再进行30次互访。
两位议员也将能够在本月晚些时候国会辩论基础设施立法和拜登的国内政策议程时测试他们的新方法，此外还有包括政府资金和国家债务限额在内的必须过去的事情。
Corn dogs, butter sculptures and political civility: Republican, Democrat model civil bipartisan exchange
More than 1 million people attended the Minnesota State Fair this year -- snacking on pork chops, sizing up the famed butter sculptures and posing with prize-winning farmanimals.
But Reps. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Dusty Johnson of South Dakota were looking for something else: an opportunity to find common ground and prove that civility in the country's politics is not extinct.
At a time when partisanship is uglier than ever in the halls of Congress, Phillips, a blue state Democrat, and Johnson, a Trump country Republican, are piloting a novel bipartisan political exchange program, featuring joint visits to each other's districts and intimate joint town hall meetings with a diverse mix of constituents.
"There are lots of good people in Congress," Johnson told ABC at the Minnesota State Fair where both men poured fresh milk together, visited a barn filled with pregnant livestock and rode down a giant slide.
"You can’t work with people you don’t trust, and you can’t trust people you don’t know," Phillips said.
Both lawmakers are members of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of moderate consensus-seekers on Capitol Hill who have notched success brokering compromises around COVID-19 relief and in shaping debate around a bipartisan infrastructure agreement.
Despite their sharp differences on government spending, health care and abortion, Phillips and Johnson said they hope actively modeling civility and decency will lay the groundwork for a more productive legislative process in Washington.
"The people who are loudest really want us to be divided. I think most members are good people who want to find common ground but, man alive, the loudest ones -- they get a disproportionate amount of the attention," Johnson said.
In a Minneapolis suburb, Phillips and Johnson convened with seven voters from across the political spectrum -- liberals and conservatives, all strangers to each other -- for a conversation moderated by the nonpartisan nonprofit Braver Angels, founded by University of Minnesota professor and licensed marriage therapist Bill Doherty.
The organization, established after the 2016 election, is dedicated to breaking through polarized political rhetoric and building bipartisan trust at a grassroots level. It has facilitated more than 1,000 conversations across the country.
"I’ve been doing marriage therapy for 40 years, I’ve never seen politics invade the marriage like it has now," Doherty told ABC News. "We seem to have more things that are dividing us than ever."
Johnson and Phillips became the first members of Congress to take part in a conversation moderated by Braver Angels, where they sat among participants and joined the frank dialogue about how political polarization has strained family relationships, divided neighborhoods and unsettled communities nationwide.
Nick Erpelding, a self-identified conservative, said politics was "nowhere near the top of the conversation list" when he married his left-of-center wife 14 years ago.
"You can’t go anywhere today without people looking at you, and before they even know who you are, they want to know, OK, is this person vaccinated, or is this person toting a gun?" he said.
Michael, a self-identified liberal participant, said some relationships in his family are so strained that his son doesn’t see his cousins.
"It’s tragic," he said. "Some people that I talk to wonder could we go to civil war if we don’t stop this and find a better way?"
Led by Doherty -- who cut off the participants and lawmakers from interrupting one another -- the conversation did not even mention former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden by name.
Instead, using prompts such as "health care" and "polarization," participants listened to personal stories and perspectives instead of debating or challenging one another.
That included Johnson and Phillips, who spoke about their families and frustrations with colleagues on Capitol Hill who are more interested in celebrity than compromise.
"If you pose questions about what really is concerning people in their lives and in their communities, they don't go right away to the politicians," Doherty explained about the group’s approach.
Together, the group didn’t find a way to make health care more affordable or bring Republicans and Democrats together around fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
But they left the conversation with a greater appreciation of the others in the group and their perspectives.
"We’re more alike than we are different," said Erin Brumm, another conservative participant. "It was a little bit surprising, but enlightening."
"I learn from him. He learns from me," Phillips said of Johnson and their experience in Minnesota. "And if that can be just a tiny bit of a seed that we metaphorically plant at the state fair … that’s a darn good beginning."
Phillips said he plans to visit Johnson's district soon, and both said they have convened their congressional offices for similar workshops. The Minnesota trip was organized in part by the Bipartisan Policy Center, which said it has 30 more exchange visits planned for this fall and winter.
Both lawmakers will also be able to put their new approach to the test later this month when Congress debates infrastructure legislation and Biden's domestic policy agenda -- in addition to must-past business that includes government funding and the nation's debt limit.
