What do you think are the potential positives and negatives to partisanship?

The "pro" would be that you identify with a large enough number of legislators to actually get something accomplished. You align yourself with some fundamental values or priorities of your party. The "con" is that you have trouble when you disagree with legislation proposed by your party or agree with legislation proposed by "the other" party. It has morphed into an "us" and "them" mentality for both major political parties and as a result the vast majority of our elected officials have appeared to have lost sight of the fact that their actions are supposed to be what benefits their constituency, not what benefits them personally or progresses a partisan agenda. The solution would be to have a multiparty system where there are 10 or more parties and then no one political party could have the sufficient strength in numbers to block legislation or ram it down our throats. Unfortunately that would take quite some time to evolve.

Negative and positive rights (not to be confused with negative and positive liberties) are rights that respectively oblige either action (positive rights) or inaction (negative rights). These obligations may be of either a legal or moral character.