Bottom line: Do you think that the partisanship, hyper or otherwise, of the last few years, has been good for America?

You're a regular judo master. Slide away from my objection to one-sided accusations, and move to the generality. We can thereby avoid uncomfortable issues like discussions of who's actually generating most of the "partisanship," hyper or otherwise.

As far as partisanship being good for America or not, that's an interesting question, and depends on how we're using the word.

Loyalty to party over principle and reason? The dictionary definition mentions "one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance." Or is it just the furious arguments over policies? As the word is used in context here and elsewhere, it seems very much like "uncramping from partisanship" means that people who don't believe what the other side does simply sit down and shut up. It's a corollary of the apparent definition of a "bipartisan" agreement as one where all the parties involved do whatever your side wants.

You might call this the "compromise diode effect." Which way is the current flowing? I can think of only one major issue where the Democratic Party has moved even a fraction toward the center from where it was twenty years ago, and mostly because they get their asses kicked in elections on it. But count on it: they still firmly believe behind closed doors. On the Republican side, limited government, low taxes, pro-life, borders and culture, and other basic issues have been largely slid under the rug. In most Republican offices, the Contract with America is sitting on the bottom of the birdcage.

Liberals see the fall of "conservatives" away from the Republican mainstream as a victory. Why not? If you get a Republican president who believes mostly the same things as a Democratic president would, what's not to like? This isn't "partisanship" going away. It's one side walking away with the whole field.

God forbid we end up in a country where there is no longer any conflict on principles in Washington. I know what that would mean. In that case, let the "partisanship" continue.