When was the last non-cataclysmic U.S. election?

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People are saying Obama's election in 2008, but I would say we already veered away from the norms by that point. 2004 seemed like the last election to me that fit neatly into the centrist establishment's conception of what elections ought to be like. 2000 was unusual in a lot of ways, but it felt more like an aberration compared to what came after. Kerry was a very safe, center-left candidate much the same way Bush 2 was a safe, center-right candidate. Both parties were still relatively civil with each other. Kerry was treated by Republicans as a flip-flopper who wanted America to be soft on terrorism. Bush was treated as a bigot and an idiot. Pretty tame, standard stuff.

By 2008 things started to really get unusual. John McCain was, again, a very safe center-right candidate. Obama, despite also being moderate especially in economic issues, was vilified endlessly in the conservative press in ways Kerry simply was not. Don't get me wrong. Fox News & co. spent plenty of energy casting Kerry as a bleeding heart who thinks the troops are stupid. It's still nothing compared to the treatment Obama got. Obama was painted over and over again as a radical, anti-American socialist who wanted to destroy traditional, American, white, Christian values. Obama's very right to participate in the election was called into question with the Birther controversy over his birth certificate. Obama was painted as a closet Muslim who was indoctrinated in madrasas overseas. I was only 16 in 2008, but I was aware enough to notice that there was a night-and-day difference between conservatives' treatment of Obama vs Kerry or Gore. Gore and Kerry were accused of being pie-in-the-sky, bleeding heart, soft on crime, soft on terrorist anti-Americans. Obama was painted as a Muslim Manchurian Candidate who was conspiring with globalists and Islamists to destroy America, namely white, Christian America. Obama was consistently referred to as Barack HUSSEIN Obama by many conservatives especially in the media to call negative attention to his being mixed race.

This vitriol about Obama only got worse once he was elected. Infamously liberal Time magazine featured a controversial cover cartoon depicting Barack and Michelle Obama dressed as black/Muslim terrorists fist-bumping. Conservatives immediately called his legitimacy as president into question, mainly because of Birther conspiracies. Millions of conservatives reacted to the election of a black, liberal president by joining anti-government militias and white supremacist groups in unprecedented numbers. Those same white supremacist groups began a campaign to infiltrate law enforcement as a means to keep non-white Americans down. The Tea Party faction of the GOP formed around the right's outrage over Obama and their belief that the party establishment was more concerned with procedure and propriety than representing conservative values. This outrage would ultimately be channeled by Donald Trump, even before announcing his candidacy, who was one of the most vocal and prominent spreaders of the Birther conspiracy theory. The current rightward lurch of the GOP is a direct result of the election of a black man to the office of president. Normalcy--to millions of them--apparently included never having a left-of-center black president.

2016 and 2020 would not have been as bizarre and volatile as they were without the divisive lead up to and aftermath of the election of Obama in 2008. Trump succeeded as candidate over the likes of Santorum and Cruz, because Trump made very little attempt to placate the establishment--an establishment with which the Tea Party and other strong Obama critics were completely fed up with.