![]() It's to gain the sinecures of power, reward one's friends, and spend other people's money. Their objective is not to win elections in order to carry out a principled program. The major parties have long stopped taking ideas seriously, campaign declarations notwithstanding. I would say we have far too much superficial partisanship and far too little profound partisanship. Profound partisanship is loyalty to a set of ideas, a philosophy. Superficial partisanship is loyalty to a party. That indicates both a superficial and a profound sense of the word. ![]() The dictionary defines partisan as A fervent, sometimes militant supporter or proponent of a party, cause, faction, person, or idea. Did they not care about that a few decades ago?)ĭepending how you look at it, we have both too much and not nearly enough partisanship. (On a commercial promoting his program, Hardball, Matthews actually says that the problem with politics today is that the candidates really want to win. Chris Matthews of MSNBC may believe that veritable demigods walked the halls of power in the 1950s and '60s, but I have some memory of that time and I am skeptical. I've read enough history to doubt that politics was really less partisan than it is today. A lot can be chalked up to the Myth of the Golden Age, the belief that we live in terrible times compared to some earlier idyllic period. You can hardly look at an op-ed page or cable news-talk show without encountering this complaint. People routinely bemoan excessive political partisanship in America. Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman and In brief.
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