The term "partisan" is, frankly, a problem for me. I recognize that some folk fit the most demonized version of that label. It's their side always against the other side; theirs is always right, the "other" is always wrong. It's more a problem of the right these days, in my view, because they've got the Washington power and, thus, most of the critical guns are turned that way. Plus some of the odd psychology of the way the Bush folk have decided to govern.
But I don't think it encompasses having political convictions, even, most certainly, strongly held ones. Nor does it mean holding political positions which are outside the ever changing mainstream of American politics.
I think that, actually, it's a very important virtue to hold strong political positions, but to hold them in such a way that (a) one does not demonize other positions and folk who hold them; (b) one is able to separate the politically possible from the politically desirable; (c) one pays attention to the data, as conditions change both the politically desirable and, obviously, the politically possible can and do change; and (d) one attempts to see politics from multiple points of view, not just one's own. |
