quotations about partisanship
Think of it this way: partisanship at least gives our elected officials something to do--and keeping them busy keeps them in the public eye where we can keep an eye on them.
MARK DOUGLAS
Believing Aloud: Reflections on Being Religious in the Public Square
However distinct deliberation and partisanship might be, we also need to recognize that eliminating partisanship is not only impossible, it is undesirable--for to do so would be to abolish deliberation in the process. Indeed, the very existence of political deliberation requires, even entails, partisanship. This seeming paradox is really no paradox at all: deliberation is thought that is directed at action, thought whose telos is a decision. Take away all prospect of action, take away the need to decide or choose, and deliberation does not simply wilt, it ceases to exist altogether. When we also remember that political choice is by definition collective, we can see why political deliberation depends on partisanship: deliberation requires action, which requires choice, which in political life is collective, which (in a democracy) requires moving from "the many as individuals" to "the many as one."
ADOLF G. GUNDERSEN
"Deliberative Democracy and the Limits of Partisan Politics: Between Athens and Philadelphia", Political Theory and Partisan Politics
It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle.
TOM DELAY
CNN, June 9, 2006
My fixed principle never to be the tool of any man, nor the partisan of any nation, would forever exclude me from the smiles and favors or courts.
JOHN ADAMS
diary, 1782