The Bipartisanship Fallacy

Is bipartisanship good? Not really. If you disagree, you are committing what I call the bipartisanship fallacy. Let me explain.

Suppose Partisan A is an advocate of certain values, ideas, and programs. Partisan B, however, opposes Partisan A’s values, ideas and programs and instead advocates different and conflicting values, ideas and programs.

Further suppose Partisan A is elected. Would Partisan A’s voters expect Partisan A in the spirit of bipartisanship to ignore their values, ideas and programs and instead now support Partisan B’s conflicting values, ideas and programs simply to get Partisan B to go along? No. That would be betraying those whose votes got Partisan A elected in the first place. Let me be specific. No one voted for Joe Biden to see him suddenly advocate privatizing Social Security. And no one voted for Donald Trump to see him become an advocate of open borders.

Of course, there could be some values, ideas and programs that both Partisan A and Partisan B support. This is the rare so-called common ground. Such values, ideas and programs are either so obviously benign or outstanding that nobody in their right mind would do anything but support them. But such values, ideas and programs are not good because they are bipartisan, that is, advocated by both Partisan A and Partisan B. Their bipartisanship is merely a signal that they are good, not what makes them good. Need an example? Sewage treatment isn’t good because partisans of every stripe support it. That support is merely a reliable sign that sewage treatment is good.

So, don’t commit the fallacy of thinking bipartisanship is good in and of itself. It isn’t.