This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 421: Party Politics in America at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

The Difference Between a Party and a Faction

In today's New York Times, James Dobson nicely sums up the difference between partisans and issue activists:

The other approach [to voting], which I find problematic, is to choose a candidate according to the likelihood of electoral success or failure. Polls don’t measure right and wrong; voting according to the possibility of winning or losing can lead directly to the compromise of one’s principles. In the present political climate, it could result in the abandonment of cherished beliefs that conservative Christians have promoted and defended for decades. Winning the presidential election is vitally important, but not at the expense of what we hold most dear.

The text of the op-ed reads like a not-to-subtle threat to the GOP presidential candidates.