What Does “Partisan” Really Mean?

by John Brown

Webster defines partisan as feeling, showing, or deriving from strong — and sometimes blind — adherence to a particular party, faction, cause, or person. It does not mean someone identified only by a political party.

A partisan is someone who supports a particular side. Historically, that support sometimes took the form of military action, as when guerrilla fighters took on government forces. But today the word is most often used as an adjective, usually describing support for a political party. If you’re accused of being “too partisan” or of “practicing partisan politics,” it means you’re mainly interested in boosting your own side and attacking the other.

But partisanship isn’t limited to party politics — it’s devotion to any ideal or core value. If you’re a patriot, you’re partisan. If you belong to a religious group, you’re partisan. If you’re committed to a particular ideology, you’re partisan. People are guided by different core values, and having a different value than your neighbor isn’t dissent — it’s just a different belief.

Lately, “partisan” gets thrown around like a dirty word. The assumption seems to be: if you’re a registered voter with an R or D next to your name, you’re partisan, and if you’re registered Unaffiliated, you’re not. Far from it. Even something as simple as what color to paint our public buildings can become partisan — a preference for haze grey (Navy), olive drab (Army or Marines), or blue (Air Force) is still a partisan preference. Whatever your beliefs, and however they differ from someone else’s, that’s partisanship. Being Unaffiliated doesn’t exempt you from it. If people want to know what you actually stand for, they watch your actions — not your registration.

Being Blue or Red, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, MAGA or “No Kings,” doesn’t by itself make you partisan. Partisanship isn’t something you hang on a coat rack when you walk into a community meeting — it’s the mettle people see when they look at who you are.

I’ve watched people stand before the council and accuse others of partisanship while vehemently denying their own. We tend to sort everyone’s partisanship into one of two boxes — left or right. But your core values may span a much wider range than that, and someone who holds different values isn’t telling you that your values are wrong. They’re just disagreeing with you.



Bottom line: differences of opinion are healthy. Attacking someone verbally because their opinion differs from yours is disrespectful and rude. Now let’s get on with the people’s business — and enjoy a good argument.