Editorial

It's not often we find ourselves agreeing with the New York Times, but it struck a chord with us when last week the Gray Lady observed in an editorial that the U.S. Senate now has only two members who are working farmers -- Iowa's Charles Grassley and Montana's John Tester.

The Times took note that Tester is spending his summer recess harvesting wheat on his family's 1,800-acre farm near Big Sandy. In an interview with a local television station, Tester said that farm work gives no deference to a senator. Driving the combine, he said, brings him back to reality.

"If more members had a life outside of campaigning and lawmaking, it might help put petty political disputes in a little perspective," the Times said.

We can't argue with that.

It's probably not so much that members of Congress don't have lives outside campaigning and lawmaking as it is that campaigning and lawmaking have come to take up so much of their lives. Legislating used to be a part-time job, and members spent most of their time back home earning a living and building their lives in the communities they served.

Congress was once dominated by farmers. But there is nothing unique about farming's ability to ground a person in reality. Most any form of work that requires a person to produce a tangible result while dealing with the trials of everyday life will do the same thing.

The growing complexity of the modern age introduced more problems that seemed to demand legislative solutions. The installation of air conditioning in the Capitol removed any reason to leave Washington, allowing Congress to be in near perpetual session. The campaigning and the law making go on unabated when that's the only business legislators have pressing.

We think a Congress that included fewer full-time legislators and more nearly full-time farmers, ranchers and other professionals, merchants and tradesmen would be a good thing. People who work in the world and interact on close to equal terms with other people in their community would probably have a greater appreciation for the impact of legislation they consider.

This would provide the perspective the Times finds our senators and representatives lack. It would also serve to turn the focus away from Washington and back to the farms, towns and cities where the real work of the country is done.