Returning To Normality?

A reader writes:

Thanks for reposting your and Chris Caldwell's pieces from '98.

Now, here's something shuddering to contemplate: The American people knew this instinctively as early as 2000.  Remember, the public -- the narrow plurality of the people -- voted for a continuation of the moderate "Eisenhower balanced-budget Republicanism" of the Clinton years.  But for various factors -- Ralph Nader, Gore's poor campaigning, Florida hanging chads -- that's what the public would have gotten in 2000.  Of course, 9/11 then grafted the "fear/security" component onto the Republican message. That essentially made a Bush re-election possible.

It took the 2000 election and 9/11 to create a "fluke" administration -- disastrous as it has turned out to be. But the American people knew what the correct direction of the country should be in 2000. Just think of where the budget/debt alone could be...No wonder it's beginning to look like a landslide in the other direction. The will of the people can only be be withstood for so long.