Partisanship Is Breaking Both Parties - Note for a discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United."

Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal

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Republicans fail again on health care, while Democrats refuse to get serious about taxes.

Excerpt:

I’ve never seen such a lack of reality among our two great political parties in Congress.

Their own survival as parties requires bipartisanship—concrete achievements and progress. They have to work together and produce! Nobody likes them. The biggest “party” in America is those who call themselves independent. Gallup has the Democrats’ and Republicans’ favorability each at about 40%. Both parties are internally riven, warring and ideologically divided. Neither is as sure as it’s been in the past of its philosophical reason for being. Both have to prove they have a purpose. Otherwise they will in time go down, and it may not take that long. ...