Congressman Ami Bera... on governing, campaigning, and American patriotism [5:51-10:56]

Yeah, that said, Marjorie Taylor Green's constituents have elected and reelected her. So I have to assume she's a reflection of her part of Georgia. We're very different and have very different perspectives on the world, but I should try to understand what are those folks in Georgia saying in that they're electing and reelecting her. I think if we take that approach to trying to understand one another, you might see more civility as opposed to, I see a lot of members of Congress judging one another, and that probably isn't a good thing. You speak to effective listening, and you're right, as physicians, we kind of have to be agnostic and not judge our patients. If you think about constituencies, and if you think about voters, and if you think about the people who you serve and the people who are leading with you in that sort of contrast, in blending that training, that background, that skill set, you basically have to, I imagine, be empathic at all times, and really like lead with empathy, whether it's with patients or families, or with your constituents, and really work to having to build and cultivate trust. Were there any, you know, when there are these natural crossovers that help you, does that help you to in fact lead with compromise, especially in an era where that word just seems to be so foreign to what we do. It does, right, I mean, my most important job as a member of Congress are my constituents, right, the 750,000 folks that I represent, and that's where I can have immediate impact, where, you know, whether it's just helping someone with a passport issue or a visa issue or a veteran getting their, their veterans benefits, and you know, that's the stuff I take the most pride in, because again, as a doctor, when you run into one of your patients, and they're really thankful. It's the same thing as a member of Congress, and someone who I probably never interacted with, that my staff helped get their visa or passport, and they come up to me in the grocery store and say, hey, Congressman, you know, thank you, you guys were great, you helped me with this or that or the other thing. That's what it's all about. I think that's something that the public doesn't always see that constituent services component of it. And then on the bigger scale that you talked about compromise, we are this incredibly diverse country that I'm a lifelong California and what we see in California is we'll stick with Georgia, you know, maybe very different. But we're all there still to serve this country so again, you know, it can't be the California way or the Georgia way, it should be, you know, what's best to serve this country and that requires compromise. Yeah, and when you think about what's not the California way, what's the Georgia way, but what rather is the American way forward, as you're building those conversations and thinking about both the grocery store conversation and the conversation you're having in the congressional chambers. Are there dots that are being connected there because that there are like-minded individuals on the other side of the aisle or even differences that you have within, you know, your own party. How do you develop those relationships and build that trust even further, especially when, you know, the turnover and the cycles, they just keep changing. Yeah, and I think that's some of the challenges. Look, I don't feel like I've been in Congress that long, but it is now my sixth term and probably after this Congress will be one of the most senior members, which just talks about tremendous turnover. I think that is one of the things that we're seeing. You have this generation that kind of came of age in the 60s or 70s that are now in their early 70s, early 80s that are retiring. And then you have a younger generation of millennials and post millennials that grew up in a very different world, right, with the internet, with social media. And then I'm 59, so I feel like I'm kind of in between the boomers and the millennials, and how do we bridge the gap. And I think those are some of the frictions that are playing out in Congress. I look at someone like AOC with admiration. She can do things that I'm never going to- I'm not a social media guy, but she knows exactly how to use those tools to communicate in a different way. It's very smart, very connected, maybe uses different tools than I would use to get stuff done, but I think she's a reflection of the generation that's rising. That's neither good nor bad, but it is a very different generation than, say, the baby boomer generation. And I think those are some frictions that are playing out. And whether they're members of Congress or those who are in different generations, I mean, I'm in my 50s as well, and thinking a little bit about how I have to connect. And I certainly am a pediatrician, so I'm certainly a little more savvy to the generation that's behind us.