BrianGarst.com

One of the themes we’re hearing about this year, ad nauseum, is the idea that the nation is presently besieged by extreme partisanship, and that little more than a timely dose of bipartisanship is needed to cure all our ills. This is pure hogwash.

The late William F. Buckley correctly opposed this poison pill in his founding of National Review.

The most alarming single danger to the American political system lies in the fact that an identifiable team of Fabian operators is bent on controlling both our major political parties(under the sanction of such fatuous and unreasoned slogans as “national unity,” “middle-of-the-road,” “progressivism,” and “bipartisanship.”) Clever intriguers are reshaping both parties in the image of Babbitt, gone Social-Democrat. When and where this political issue arises, we are, without reservations, on the side of the traditional two-party system that fights its feuds in public and honestly; and we shall advocate the restoration of the two-party system at all costs.

Democracy is about choices. It functions best when people have real ones to make. If elected officials are just going to get together behind closed doors and pass out favors until a grand “compromise” is reached on every issue, why should we even bother with elections in the first place? If the people’s ideological preferences are irrelevant, let’s cut the charade and just appoint a permanent class of liberal experts (which is the objective behind this ‘bipartisanship’ claptrap).

It is important to remember that partisanship is not synonymous with dirty tricks or excessively negative campaigning, despite the conventional usage. That kind of partisanship, and “gotcha” game playing in Washington, is counterproductive. But partisanship as a whole is about having ideas and standing up for them. It’s about not betraying those who voted for you precisely because they believed in the views you campaigned on.

Americans are, as a matter of instinct, distrustful of government. Like Adam Smith said of business leaders who operate in the same industry, we know that when politicians of both parties get together it will inevitably end in a conspiracy against the public. We want our politicians competing against one another, not patting each other on the back. It helps keep them in line. We want to feel like it’s the will of the people that ultimately decides an issue and not what favor was promised to whom behind closed doors in Congress.