American politics wasn't always so partisan.

First of all I don't have a link I got this info from a book I will give the details below.

Title: Eisenhower soldier and president
Author: Stephen E.Ambrose
Publisher: Pocket books
ISBN: 0743468716

Now that Iv got that out of the way I will get to my point. After Ike left the Whitehouse and Kennedy was elected Kennedy asked Ike in effect if he would be available for consultation from time to time.

It was a genuine offer rather then a just a means to create a photo op. After the Boy of Pigs fiasco Kennedy invited Ike to Camp David where he sought his thoughts on the matter. Even thou Ike wasn't a fan of Ikes policy's he was still willing to be available to the young president.

This happened without any political backlash that I know of.
Can anyone without grey hair think that such a thing could happen ?
Today US politics has become extremely partisan you don't Clinton going to the Whitehouse at Bush's request.

So what happened to make US politics so partisan that it damages the
US and is at best counter productive ?

On a side note LBJ got Ike support for the Vietnam war but refused to take his sound advice.

Partisanship has always been with us. I'm not entirely convinced that it's been just Republican vs. Democrat. I think the forces of big government have been gathering steam for quite some time. I'd be willing to say that the Republicans have forever lost their small government preference. From now on, it's all about the centralizing of power and who controls it.

It's true that rhere was once a time when the two major parties were evenly matched. Even now, the idealist in me wishes for such a thing to happen again. I don't think it will, ut I am willing to make the admission. What we see as partisanship today is actually something far more sinister. It's the mother of all power struggles being played out right in front of us.

The ante got upped concerning partisanship with the start of the big political attack ads. The one that comes to mind as being the start of the current style was the "Willie Horton" attack ad during the 1988 Presidential election between Bush and Dukakis.

I think I might be willing to go back even further. It's true that Willie Horton is essentially the precursor to Swift-boating, but...having said that...I think we saw some of the bare knuckle stuff that we take for granted today in the elections of '64 and '68. We are after all on ATS, so who's tao say it doesn't go back to Kennedy?