2004 was extremely divisive, Bush was hated fervently by every group in the democratic party while viewed as a hero by Republicans . Voter turnout hit it's highest levels since the 1968 election since Democrats went to the polls in droves to defeat Bush, and Republicans went in polls in droves to reelect Bush. Every state(except IA , NH,NM) not only voted the same way as they did in 2000 , they went even more Red/Blue. I mean Bush still won the 2000 election despite losing the popular vote , only won the 2004 election by 1 state despite winning the election by over 3 million votes.
If you want to see how divisive 2004 was, here's how 2004 would have gone on a purely PVI basis(the country swung 3 points GOP in 2004)
Bush 318
Kerry 220
Instead Bush lost NH, lost Maine 2nd by 6 points, lost Wisconsin, lost Minnesota by 3.5%, lost Oregon by 4 points.
This is correct. 2004 was in my opinion the 3rd most divisive election in the post-WWII era, behind 2016 and 1968. Bush was LOATHED by the Democrats, who saw him as a fascistic warmonger and an imbecile while the GOP saw him as a man of strength and character who led us in the war against radical Islamic terrorism.
What was amazing about this election was that despite winning the national popular vote by 2.5%, Bush only converted 2 Gore states: New Mexico and Iowa and by margins of less than 1%. Given that he was an incumbent President after the worst attack on U.S. soil and a recovering economy, he should have won by margins similar to Clinton 1996 or Obama 2008. His PV margin was due to losing CA by just 10 points, improving on northeastern blue states such as PA, NJ, NY, and crushing it in red states such as TX, GA, FL, NC.