Partisan divide is bad now? Not really

March 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The current partisan divide is as stark and nasty as any in recent history and on almost every issue — from health care to energy independence to reviving the economy — there’s little or no effort to find common ground.

But fierce political battle is also a tradition ingrained in American history. If today’s hostile environment is particularly intense, it’s downright genteel compared with many battles of the past.

The Civil War, when anti- and pro-slavery forces split the nation, is the most extreme example. But there’s also the beginning of the 20th century, when the country was becoming more urban, and trust- busting Teddy Roosevelt was redefining the role of government.

The current economic troubles have collided with President Barack Obama’s efforts to change government amid waves of public anger and protest movements such as the tea party.

Party politics, President George Washington said in his farewell address in 1796, “agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms.”

“We’ve had partisanship ever since we’ve had federal government,” Senate historian Donald Ritchie said. “Bipartisanship is really the exception to the rule.”

Partisanship got off to a raucous start in the presidential election of 1800 when the incumbent, John Adams, a Federalist, faced his vice president, Thomas Jefferson, a Democrat- Republican. Adams’ supporters portrayed Jefferson as a libertine who would bring French Revolution-style anarchy to the country. Adams was branded a monarchist and characterized as toothless and senile.

The election’s repercussions were deadly. Jefferson beat Adams, but under the electoral system at the time, the House had to decide between Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, who received the same number of electoral votes. Federalist Alexander Hamilton helped sway the vote to Jefferson, a source of personal animosity that led to a duel in 1804 where Burr shot and killed Hamilton.

But it wasn’t until the 1830s — when populist Democrats led by Andrew Jackson took control of the government — that party politics as we know it today really began to take shape, says Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University. Jackson’s opponents referred to him as “jackass,” often credited as the source of the donkey as the Democratic Party’s symbol.

Binder said waves of partisanship tend to coincide with major changes to the nation as a whole.