Campaign 200: Primary Vision.

• Author: Schneider, William

According to The New York Times-CBS News poll, Democrats hold the advantage on the issues voters consider most important: the environment, health care, education, Social Security and Medicare. Republicans are rated better on military defense and family values, but those are much lower public priorities. Moreover, under Clinton, Democrats have proved their credentials as economic managers--and regained the credibility they lost under Jimmy Carter.

Maybe it's the economy, maybe it's exhaustion. Whatever it is, the voters are looking for something new in their candidates--and it's vision not issues that matters.

The United States has charged a lot during the Clinton years. For one thing the ideological war seems to be over. The country has gone through a Thirty Years' War between liberals and conservatives, fought on two fronts. One was the culture way initiated by the left, that came out of the Great American Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. The other was the war on government, initiated by the right, that started with the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. Both came to a head during the Clinton years, with the health care debacle, government shutdowns, the Oklahoma City bombing and, for a climax, the yearlong struggle over impeachment.

Who won? It's hard to say. Both sides claim defeat. After the failure of health care reform and the catastrophic 1994 election, the left acknowledged defeat in the war on government. "The era of big government is over." President Clinton proclaimed, as the pulled Defeated and demoralized liberals stood by Clinton, even after he scorned their cherished ideals by signing welfare reform.

After the failure of impeachment, the right acknowledged defeat in the culture wars. The saw the public's willingness to stick with Clinton as proof that the '60s had corrupted American culture with an ethic of self-indulgence. Now under the banner of "compassionate conservatism." George W Bush is pulling Republicans to the center on social issues. Defeated and demoralized conservatives seem ready to follow him.

In reality, both wars were fought to a standoff. The voters are firmly in the middle. They don't want any big expansion of the federal government, like Clinton's health care reform. But they don't want to cut back things the government does well like Medicate, Medicaid, education and environmental protection. They favor traditional values, but they are tolerant of diversity and nonconformity. It has taken the parties 30 years to figure this out.

Going into the new century Americans are both war-weary and satisfied with the way things are going in the country. They're not...