This a story of Presidential candidate who ran for office on a platform of being a "uniter" who would end the vicious partisan atmosphere of the recent past, who agreed with critics of his own party who said it lacked compassion and who emphasized that in his home state he had worked across party lines to build strong bipartisan coalitions to get stuff done. He won his election. How did it work out for him?
How did it work out for this man who was a "uniter not a divider"? Well, for the country it worked out quite horribly, because he was an evil moron. But quite surprisingly (especially given the moron part), for a long time this President got his way on almost everything.
How did he do it? First, he claimed that his (so-called) victory was a mandate for him to unite the country. When his opponents refused to give in to him, he gave a stern speech about how horrible it was for them to divide the country that way, and how horrible it was that they refused to come together in a "bipartisan fashion" to give produce a bill "that the President can sign."
In almost every case, the President's opponents were totally baffled by this demand, and they gave in time and time again. The President even got leading members of the opposition to endorse a horrible, stupid war on the basis that to do otherwise would "divide" the country in a time of crises. Even when his opponents won an historic congressional election, the President called for continued "bipartisan" support for this positions and the Congress, befuddled, gave up in almost every case.
Now, the evil moron President is leaving office and his opponents wonder what tone their candidate should take in the next election. One of the candidates promises to end the rancor and to unite the country behind a new beginning. He says that the way to win political arguments is, first, to unify (not divide) the country around your argument. Second, you call on your opponents to join you in bipartisan efforts to solve the important problem.
(When speaking to purely partisan audiences, he sometimes adds a third step, where you kick your opponents aside if they eventually refuse to work with you. But somehow he doesn't mention that in front of broader audiences.)
But, clearly, this plan would never work. When has it ever?