The coarsening of American democracy

Take a look at this excerpt from an article entitled "Karl Rove's last fix":

Karl Rove has been the president's political adviser - some would say "Bush's brain" - for fourteen years: he led his successful Texas gubernatorial campaigns in 1994 and 1998 and his presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. Rove holds the position of White House deputy chief of staff, but he actually runs the political arm of the Bush administration - while vice-president Dick Cheney handles day-to-day operations. Rove ensures that Bush considers the political ramifications of every presidential decision and appointment.

In this regard he's had the same relationship to George W Bush that many other deeply partisan "fixers" and media manipulators have had to their political masters - Dick Morris to Bill Clinton, Alastair Campbell to Tony Blair. The ingredients of the relationship may be familiar, but Rove added to the mix an extra element: a willingness to employ his extraordinary propaganda talents in the service of a polarising, destructive and unscrupulous targeting of his leader's political opponents. In this, he has played a major role in the coarsening of American democracy.

He's up to something again - of that I've no doubt.