[Hemingway's Ghost]

Partisanship has saved this country.

I disagree.

Partisanship, or factionalism, establishes an us versus them mentality where the strength of one's argument or the good one intends to do with that argument means nothing compared to the other guy losing. Partisanship encourages a cult of personality; a demonization or at the very least, a dehumanization of one's opponents, who happen to be one's countrymen. I don't think much good emerges out of conflict after conflict after conflict, and as a matter of fact, you can probably find as the source of much government bloat, redundancy, and sheer waste a Democrat's determination to stop a Republican, or a Republican's determination to stomp a Democrat.

[Maelstrom]

It was partisanship that halted the nationalization of the healthcare industry.

It is partisanship that maintains a semblence of a right to keep and bear arms. Without that partisanship you would have lost all rights to private gun ownership in 1968!!

It was partisanship that has halted most government action.
While your argument has merit in a venue in which something should be accomplished, it is totally without merit in a government. Most certainly it is totally without merit in a government of supposedly limited powers.

It is in fact an extremely important check on government power.