Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Bookbag: On the Side of the Angels: An Appreciation of Parties and Partisanship

Nancy Rosenblum has my back when it comes to seeing a link between partisanship and humility:
I advocate for the moral distinctiveness of partisanship and propose reasons to elevate partisanship over its nemesis, the much vaunted pose of "Independence." Partisanship is the only political identity that does not see pluralism and political conflict as a bow to necessity, a pragmatic recognition of the inevitability of disagreement. It demands severe self-discipline to acknowledge that my party's status is just one part in a permanently pluralist politics, and hence the provisional nature of being the governing party and the charade of pretending to represent the whole.
For more on On the Side of the Angels, see Jacob Levy's ongoing symposium.

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