The Case for Partisanship?

In this month's Atlantic magazine Matthew Yglesia makes a case for partisanship and polarization by drawing on historical comparisons. [link here]

But his analysis blurs important distinctions between current and past polarization in American politics. The good and bad of polarization must distinguish between its functional effects as our current divisive politics has served electoral politics well but hampered the process of governing. We can observe this in the dynamics of the Bush-Clinton years where partisanship has defined voter differences but impeded important legislative compromises on entitlements, health care, national defense and immigration. One can assume citizen frustration with this experience is a large factor in Senators Obama and McCain’s support.

Our current partisanship has been detrimental because of an historical anomaly where voters’ ideological and subcultural identities have coincided, yielding Red and Blue America. As James Carville might say, "It's the voters, stupid." This coincidence - which is illustrated best with geography, hence the Red and Blue maps - has been exploited by parties as well as mass and new media. What this has meant is a hardening of political identity and less room for candidates to cross party lines (re: Lieberman). Ideological identity has been harnessed by candidates and parties to win elections, but this only works to a point. It was Obama’s moment to recognize the growing frustration with this dynamic and change his electoral appeal to post-partisanship. We’ll see how well it works as the underlying topology of red and blue remains.

Mr. Yglesia mentions the growing frustration with the two party system, but majoritarian winner-take-all rules force compromise and centrism necessary to win elections and enact legislation within a diverse polity. Multiple parties would only yield fragile party coalitions with the illusion of political effectiveness (re: Green, Freedom and Libertarian parties). As Mr. Yglesia concludes, we’re probably better off dealing with the frustration of the current system as it has served the nation well and its present dysfunction is most likely temporary.