Partisanship...

Following-up on walk's post below about partisanship, I came across this piece by Anne-Marie Slaughter , which I've posted a draft of this post as a comment there. Many of the comments are what we've come to expect from "progressives" trying to out-do themselves in their condemnation of all things Republican.

Truth be told, Democrats don't win elections if they don't make efforts to appeal to people who vote Republican (for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of a lack of party discipline brought about because most people follow their ideology first, party second, while GOP voters are the opposite).

Many progressives are making the same arguments the Bush Administration makes in its dealings with North Korea, making a series of pre-conditions to negotiation. At this point, however, many Republicans are looking for cover, and running across a no-man's land in the middle. To meet halfway, Democrats already need to be there. Let's jetison this childish "they need to go halfway first" attitude. That isn't the attitude of leadership.

There are all sorts of things that Democrats and Republicans can agree upon, and partisanship of the sort advocated by many progressives (a sort of Cheneyism on the left) would involve salting the earth in the middle in retaliation for years of hardcore partisanship on the Right.

In the end, partisanship hurts the party, and the ability to move its agenda forward. It makes it more difficult for GOP members to support us. It buys into the hateful elections (thereby discouraging fresh candidates). It shrinks the tent of the party when we can be expanding it to include people who can contribute new and innovative ideas.

We need to stop thinking that every Republican is Dick Cheney or Rick Santorum and acting accordingly.