the wingnuts are just blowing the divorce stories out of proportion and the media wants whatever story they can get.' But the news never got better."
Axenbar was fired from the President's team by the end of 2019, when the political toll of the Partnership Act was becoming clear. Axenbar claims he was unfairly made the scapegoat, though other senior administration officials claim that he had been just as gung-ho as everyone else about the Act when it had been passed.
Supporters of the Partnership Act maintain that the number of divorces brought about by the partner requirements pales in comparison to the number of relationships saved or created by the Act. Over coffee at a cafe in Farragut Square, Ezra Clyde of the Wonkytonk blog heatedly told me, "Overall divorce rates plummeted following the Partnership Act. The Act created or saved over fifteen million marriages. And of the people who got divorces, how many were actually happily married? Probably not many, according to the science."
The Partnership Mandate
Even staunch defenders like Ezra Clyde admit that the partnership mandate was the most legally controversial part of the Partnership Act. Every adult in the United States had to provide proof that they were in a committed relationship heading toward permanent commitment, which normally meant marriage, but could also incorporate less traditional monogamous relationships.
As Stu Patter explained it, the basic rationale of the partnership mandate was to ensure the quality of the dating pool. “I talked this issue over with the President many times. She was skeptical at first. ‘Isn’t it heavy-handed to force people to date?’ Well, maybe,