Everyone is now talking about how this year’s elections have already been groundbreaking in the way it’s broken from the trench deadlock of partisan warfare that has characterized the last series of Presidential elections, from Clinton to Bush. Everyone is chirping about the arrival of the “millennials” and their inclusive, conciliatory brand of politics that looks set, perhaps, to change the way politicians appeal to voters –focusing once again on the middle ground of moderate voters instead of trying to rally “the base”.

Sorry, but this is politics, not war. The bitter trench war between blue team and red team hasn’t gone away. It’s simply going through a period of shifting alliances and partisan ideologies just as it did with Reagan or Teddy Roosevelt. Once that is done, the front will once more settle down into yet another vicious stalemate between team Democrat and team Republican.

The simple truth is that partisans, like Hitler’s SS or Stalin’s NKVD, are the stalwarts that make up the political spine of the two competing parties. Without them, the parties collapse and chaos ensues until the partisans rally around another flag. The thoughtful middle of apolitical voters is neither reliable nor easily inspired, or a single monolithic bloc that can be forged into a mighty army of political squishification for that matter. Exceptions like Barack Obama aside, the middle ground is hard to rally and even harder to keep a hold on. That’s why the parties focus on rallying their faithful more than wooing the middle – partisans need little urging and even less organizing to assemble into a potent political machine. These people are inspired merely by the sight of the opposition and the scent of blood. They’re the unthinking, unwavering shock troops of modern political war. They can be relied on to attack relentlessly, defend tenaciously and not ask too many questions.

The only reason the middle has come so much to the fore is because the partisans on both sides have been largely routed and demoralized by the events of the last 8 years. The Democratic base consumed itself in the flames of its own anger over the Gore debacle, culminating in the failed candidacy of John Kerry. The Republicans are going through much the same process right now as the far right finds itself adrift from the main party that is itself crumbling under the strain of its own scandals. Democrats have begun the process of rallying the party the Republicans have yet to do so. The next Presidency will pretty much determine the face of the new wave of partisans. Will it be John McCain leading a neo-Eisenhower coalition, or Barack Obama and a new New Deal?

The Partisans are dispersed for now. But they’ll be back soon enough, probably too soon for those of us still shaking off the bitterness of the Bush years. But, then again, maybe I’ll be a partisan too by then.