Postpartisan, not Bipartisan

I'm surprised that the media and politicians don't understand the difference between postpartisan and bipartisan. I wrote about the power of a prefix over at Progressive Revival and wanted to share the article with my readers at Sojourners:

President Obama campaigned as a postpartisan candidate. Postpartisan means that politics must move beyond the current party structure. A postpartisan vision recognizes that there are many voices in the larger body politic--and that a good number of those voices have never been heard in the American process. Thus, postpartisan, a sort of generational mantra for those under 40, is an attempt to create new relationships, draw diverse people and perspectives to a table, and develop innovative possibilities to address social and political issues.

Diana Butler Bass (www.dianabutlerbass.com) is the author of the forthcoming A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story (March 2009).