My uncle and I were once debating a political issue when he said to me something like “You support that position because of your partisan alignment.” I responded that he had it backwards: to the extent that I had a partisan alignment, it was shaped by my position on specific issues.
Separately, I had a friendly acquaintance who would regularly argue that scholarly work that disagreed with Republican positions was biased because the authors were Democrats. In that situation, too, I argued for the possibility that the authors were Democrats because their scholarly conclusions disagreed with Republican claims.
Certainly, there are people whose biases affect what they do and say in both conscious and unconscious ways. An economist, for example, who supports the Unnamed Party, might conceivably agree with Unnamed policy because of partisan alignment, and that alignment might influence their research, results, and policy recommendations.
But is there only partisanship? My uncle and my acquaintance both argued all views are shaped by partisan alignment. But that assumes that everyone feels allegiance to extent parties, when it’s pretty clear that many people don’t immediately choose an alignment–witness the millions of voters in the US who register without party affiliation. Additionally, it raises the question of why people choose partisan alignment: we can’t assume that everyone simply accepts the partisan affiliation of their parents.
Doesn’t it make sense that people would choose party affiliation because the principles of the person align with the principles of the party? Imagine a school teacher given a choice between the Schools-are-terrible Party and the Schools-are-great party? What about a member of a labor union given a choice between the Union-busting Party and the Union-supporting Party? What about a environmental biologist whose work suggests that climate change is real? Someone who has dedicated their life to scientific study of the environment and, as a result of that study, concluded that anthropegenic climate change is real? Won’t that person be tempted to align themselves with a party that respects their work rather than ridiculing it?
My uncle said to me: “every one wants to fit on their own team.” I said to my uncle: “what about people who don’t feel they fit on any team?” Personally, I’ve never fit in well with groups. But when a team is dedicated to a principle that is important to me, I like them for that reason (even if there may be other reasons I dislike that team).