There has been copious rending of garments and Republican prostration after Obama's victory Tuesday night. Yet in the intervening period we've been bombed by innumerable appeals that Obama follow through with his pledge of a "post-partisan" administration. These generally take the form of conservative appeals to postpone the tax policy, avoid socially liberal judges, and otherwise follow a moderately conservative agenda. Certainly, this is a thinly veiled attempt to minimize their losses. However, this also represents the fundamental misunderstanding of the meaning of "partisan", and why so many people are opposed to it.
What these conservatives, including even some moderate democrats, fail to understand is that "partisanship" refers to the actions of the political parties themselves. It has nothing to do with the fundamental philosophies that tend to propel those parties. When we bemoan the partisanship of the country, we instead refer to the demonization of the opposition; the unwillingness of it's members to work with the other party out of loyalty to their group, rather than loyalty to their ideas.
The truth is, this election was a victory for both progressive ideas as well as bi-partisanship. The reason Bush failed as a bi-partisan was not because of his far-right philosophy, though that was a large part of his failure as a leader. Instead, it was his insistence on painting democrats and liberals as "other". When one does this, they alienate even those who otherwise would be willing to work with you and those voters who might otherwise be convinced to vote for you.
How does this affect Obama? He should ignore those calls from Rove and Kondracke to veer sharply right and merge onto Bush's highway. He can and should govern as the principled progressive he ran as with the same purpose and resolve that Bush had as a neo-con. However, unlike Bush, he should avoid the mean-spirited, meaningless attacks on the opposition that Bush honed to a science. Don't blame Republicans for every problem that ails us, but instead attack those IDEAS that have brought us so much grief.
Obama has an amazing ability to inspire people, bringing them along for the ride. He should harness that power and push through as Progressive an agenda as he can, but forever resist the temptation to blame it on republicans rather than the ideas that they espouse. We can depend on the people to recognize who blocks legislation, who attacks, and who seeks to bring down low.