Step by step, sometimes with only a vague awareness of what was taking place, the French founded a revilitionary tradition that has endured down to our time. Paradoxically, while multiplying the forms and meanings of politics, the most revolutuonary of the French acted out of prodound distrust of anything explicitly political. Leading political figures never called themselves politicians; they served "the public good" (la chose publique), not a narrow "partisan spirit" (espirit de parti).
Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture and Class in the French Revolution.
My margin notes say: nb this was when partisanship was seen as undemocratic. This feeling isn’t just a French affectation or a sign of the early Revolution; George Washington shared that particular opinion, and that’s why no party, modern or historical, can claim him.
