A Post-Partisan World? Fat chance.

Meanwhile, Julian Zelizer has some wise words about what won't be discussed in the upcoming debates.

My only disagreement is on this whole 'post-partisanship' issue. Of course it's nonsensical rhetoric for Obama and McCain to talk of post-partisan politics, and of course it won't happen. People will always suffer from politics. When Gordon Brown came to power here in the UK, he promised to build a consensus through non-political appointments and work through bipartisanship and post-partisanship. That didn't go very well, either.

As Hamilton and Madison would tell you, partisanship is primarily a function of faction and with inequality of property you will always have factionalism. So the only way to truly have a post-partisan world is to engineer one of greater equality. Moreover, faction and politicking isn't necessarily a bad thing per se. It can be bad if it's of the swift boat variety, but it also brings different policy options into starker relief.

The alternative to partisanship is not a ministry of all the talents working together for the common good, but a united establishment class that becomes steadily more divorced from the real disputes over power in society.