On Saturday February 20, 2021, President Biden met with former Kansas Senator and Republican Presidential candidate Bob Dole. Dole is suffering from brain cancer and his old colleague Biden visited to pay respects.

The Wall Street Journal reports in “Making Washington Work” (Gerald F. Seib Feb. 22, 2021) that Dole recounted a story about a last-minute pending judicial nomination that he wished to get through the Senate the 1990s. The Senate was about to adjourn and Dole wanted his candidate on the bench, but there was no time for a committee hearing before adjournment.

Was there a way to get her confirmed before the Senate adjourned? Notice what Dole said about Biden. “I believe his response was, ‘Well, if you say so, we won’t need a confirmation hearing,'” Dole recalled. Dole’s desired appointment was a respected qualified candidate and Biden, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, trusted Dole’s judgment.

I like that story about trust very much and I like that President Biden took time to meet with Senator Dole. It ties in with the recently deceased Alex Trebeck’s special theme in his last season of Jeopardy. The master of agreed-upon-facts emphasized the importance of building “a kinder and gentler society” as he faced his own death near the 2020 election. He often ended his show with the statement about building a kind and gentle society.

Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama have set down a series of conversations about their lives and the nature of our current society in a podcast series entitled Outsiders: An Unlikely Friendship. I find myself laughing out loud and being moved to tears as I listen to them talk about friendship and society. They are putting into practice the civility that the recent Biden–Dole meeting demonstrated and that Trebeck emphasized in his show business career.

We can have a civil society. Conversation is possible. This weekend will see former President Trump making his first public appearance at the C-PAC meeting. What will his remarks be like? Will they be civil and factual? I suspect they will return me to the hateful division that I am just now getting over one month into the Biden presidency.

Do I think President Biden will be a very successful president. No. Our country is too divided for him win the support of the opposition, but he will try. He will be a civil president who puts unity above division and that pleases me.