Thursday, July 03, 2008

Post-Partisan or Postpartisan -- The new buzzword

Make of it what you will.

Here is what a Google News link spits out.

Here is what a Google Blog search reports.

Safire noted the word in February.

In 1993, a group of politically active people formed “the Third Millennium,” issuing a manifesto from “a post-partisan political organization for the twentysomething generation.” Richard Thau, then its executive director (now probably fortysomething), sent me an e-mail message saying that the word “removes the partisan construct from politics altogether — a quantum leap beyond mere bi-partisanship, which limits the discussion to areas where the two major parties can agree. It can be a tough phrase to use in conversation, because if you say post-partisan quickly, people think you’re saying post-partum.”

Post-partum, indeed. We all know what word follows that: depression.

No, not that kind of depression. Well, with all the talk now about inflation and recession...maybe so.

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