For some time, bipartisanship has been seen as the highest civic ideal. A polarized, partisan political sphere has been understood as a toxic threat to a healthy democracy. This was the early message of the Obama campaign: A more enlightened, civil politics would reignite our civic sphere. In The American Prospect this month, Henry Farrell argues that the Obama campaign disproved its central premise. It did indeed do wonders for the country's civic health. But it was partisanship, nit biaprtisanship, that proved the animating force. And Farrell goes further: He amasses some evidence showing that mannered bipartisanship tends to depress participation rather than enable it. Repress the electorate's animal spirits and you depress the electorate. Hotsoup, the dignified effort of Washington wisemen to create a safe space for civic engagement, has done little to empower the citizenry. MoveOn.org has done much. The Obama campaign's organizing theory was relentlessly bipartisan. The Obama campaign's organizers created an astonishingly successful new civic structure oriented around party politics. Anyway, it's a provocative piece. Give it a read.
