Healthy partisanship requires the self-discipline to admit being only a part

Evidence

Parties also create partisans—citizens who identify with a party. Partisanship is the political identity of those who accept political pluralism, are not averse to its inharmonious cacophony, and who do not see conflict as something to be overcome. At its best (which is not all the time, clearly) partisanship’s moral significance is located here, in the commitment to pluralism and regulated political rivalry. While they try to speak to everyone, partisans do not imagine they speak for everyone. And it takes self-discipline to acknowledge partiality and resist the urge to claim the mantle of the nation, to pretend to represent all “real” Americans. Partisans are not always faithful to this obligation, but representative democracy depends on their acknowledging (as the word “partisan” suggests) that they are only a part and not the whole. It takes discipline to accept that every victory is partial and temporary, only good until the next election. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 196

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines partisanship as a distinct political identity grounded in accepting pluralism and regulated rivalry, and locates its moral weight in self-aware partiality.
• QUESTION: Worth pursuing: this account of partisanship as self-disciplined partiality implies the failure mode is party-as-nation claims — a testable lens on contemporary anti-party conspiracism.
• XREF: connects to: Stated ‘other qualifications’ once included partisan campaign work and friendships with senators — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 471