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It is annoying in the extreme, that when running for office, politician of all stripes are forced to, and generally promise "to work across party lines." For what? Don't voters ostensibly choose candidates based on party affiliation, assuming that party represents his or her views more closely? Worse, in the case of Republicans, who routinely denounce their opponents as unpatriotic and subversive, and get their way anyway, calls for bipartisanship are flat-out lies.
Democrats, on the other hand, promise and deliver bipartisanship, always producing results that favor entrenched interests, further consolidate government power, and make the political class a stranger to the nation's laws.
Basically, "bipartisanship" has become a code word for oligarchy; actually throwing a few crumbs to citizens in terms of accountability, privacy, or equality.... That's "partisan."
Telling those who voted you into office to sit down and shut up, while you join hands in holy matrimony with the other party to cement in place the venality, corruption, and delusional thinking that has gotten us into this mess.... That's "bipartisanship."
Welcome to the same-sex marriage of Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney.
