The ability to endure the tawdry moral excesses of men is recognized

worldwide as the most remarkable aspect of our American government.  This

aspect has certainly been tested by what has transpired politically during

the last decade.  The greatest evil born of that time has been partisanship. 

Though we seem to have borne the latest straws placed upon the collective

back of the Republic, the current rancid political atmosphere makes you

wonder how near is the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back?  And,

how will that broken back manifest itself?  Allow me to limn a few recent

historical occurrences-or straws.

      White Water was an excuse for partisanship.  The Republicans fired

across the Democrats' bow daily, with impunity and with obviously partisan

operatives in place: Ken Starr, Newt Gingrich, Trent Lott, et al.  When White

Water turned out to be nothing more than the white lies and common lapses of

record keeping common in commerce, Monica Lewinsky fortuitously appeared on

the scene.  The affair was duly exploited to try and oust a Democratic

President the Republicans didn't like.  Finally we had the virtually evenly

split Bush/Gore election.  (Which election was indicative of one thing and

one thing only: the need for a uniform voting process for the nation.  I make

this observation because what transpired in Florida goes on all over America

at election time.  It was only an issue this time because of the

skin-of-the-teeth aspect of this presidential race.)  Both Democrats and

Republicans see this even split in the voice of the people as a do-or-die

circumstance.  The ultimate question, given the parameters set by the Clinton

scandals, was posited thus: Do the American people still have confidence in

the Democratic Party to govern?

The evenly split Senate and virtually fifty-fifty split House has

answered that question quite solidly.  Fifty percent of the American people

do believe in the Democrats ability to govern, and fifty percent do not.

      Do you see where I'm heading?  It's fifty-fifty.  That is not a bad

thing in and of itself.  But toss in enough rancor and partisanship to choke

a mule-or an elephant-and what you have are the ingredients for civil war,

never mind a camel's broken back.

      Civil War?  Yes: I said civil war.  A war between Democrats and

Republicans.  Before you admonish that I stop being hysterical-that the

nation has suffered much worse and remained in tact-let me admonish you that

the term "much worse" not be oversimplified.  "Much worse" in the past meant

simply that the two Parties had sharp differences of opinion.  Now it appears

to be about power; not about compromise, but about absolute control.  I

remember a certain retired Senator on television remarking with some

incredulity that "these people don't even talk to one another," "these

people" being Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House.

One of the givens of our democracy is that our prevailing ethos will be

an amalgam of two points of view: Democrat and Republican.  The day there is

a prevailing dominance by one or the other, we will no longer have a

democracy.  Both Behemoths must remember that they can never force their

ideals upon a voting nation.  You say this will always save us?  Not when one

or the other wins a majority and starts behaving tyrannically "in the best

interest of the Republic."  The two Parties are behaving as they do because

they have lost sight of the rules of the game.  They are not in a "battle"

for "control" of the country.  They are in a "forum" to make their case for

"representing the will of the people."

A.W. Lindsay Jr's novel, Zelda, is available at www.publishamerica.com