Partisanship increasing - good or bad?

Contrary to prior catastrophes America has not pulled together behind its president. An ABC/Washington Post poll reflects a Deepening Divide between Ds and Rs over current administration policies in general and Bush's performance in particular.

The question is what this means for third parties. In one sense it is good sign, because "bipartisanship" is now revealed as the sham that it is. On the other hand, I'm afraid the need to be on the winning (or "right") side is going to cause independents to take sides, which reduces the pool of available supporters for alternatives to the Ds and Rs.

Time will tell.