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Ready for Four More Years? They Certainly Are

...Every now and then, I experience a warm surge of nostalgia for the Clinton years. Not out of affection for Billary, hell no; I consider George W. Bush a mischievous fool, but as for the Clintons… I used to read The American Spectator religiously, and though they never quite sold me on Mena or Troopergate, the accusations were far from implausible. But the things the Clintons took credit for bespoke their venality loud and clear, and I felt a sense of brotherhood with grassroots conservatives in thinking so. Suddenly, I could talk politics with my parents again. We railed against big spending, even as the rate of increase leveled off (that looks like something to brag about now). We demanded impeachment after Waco. We decried Clinton's draconian response to the Oklahoma City bombing and his l'état c'est moi mentality. We howled as he bombed his way out of political crises. And we pitied – at the time, I thought sincerely – the victims of his pointless war on Yugoslavia.

Grassroots conservatives like my folks and libertarians like me seemed to be converging on a shared skepticism about power, distrust of official narratives, and, above all, disgust for the increasing militarization of civil society. Those were the days.

Then their guy won the White House....