All Intensive Purposes

I can't find what I referred to below, but this post from Andrew Sullivan's site is the springboard for the point:

INDEPENDENTS AND BUSH: I guess some might call me an Independent, in as much as I've backed Democrats and Republicans in the past. Backing Reagan and the two Bushes as well as Kerry and Clinton puts me somewhere in the center, I suppose. I'm more of a conservative of doubt in my own mind. Whatever. This new poll contains something interesting to me:

Among Republicans (36% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 84% approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 12% disapprove. Among Democrats (38% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 18% approve and 77% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job. Among Independents (26% of adults registered to vote in the survey), 17% approve and 75% disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.

The disapproval levels of Independents and Democrats are now indistinguishable, but the Republican bloc is solid. This strikes me as a direct result of the Rove strategy of brutal partisanship, Christianist pandering, and general fiscal and military fecklessness. Some readers have said that my criticism of the administration makes me sound like a liberal these days. Well, from these results, I'm not the only one being pushed by right-wing extremism into opposition.

The levers of power are all in GOP hands these days. For the next three years, Rove doesn't have to worry about independent or Democratic support, except insofar as he needs his side to win enough seats in the mid-term election to keep its majority in Congress -- although perhaps Rove is thinking that Bush is well and truly a lame duck after the '06 elections, and needs to get things done now. Hence the strategy of polarization. Rove's comments the other day were no accident, they were a calculated effort to raise the temperature. In order to keep Republicans with him, Rove is fomenting divisiveness and discord. Expect it to continue. In this environment, it's that much less likely that Republicans will do display the independence and principle that (e.g.) Sen. Voinovich did in opposing Bolton's nomination. They are less likely to want to do so, and they will be more constrained by their fellow party members. The country may be at war, but Rove -- and Bush -- are sacrificing national unity for the sake of partisan advantage.