That was not the disaster the gov't-loving revisionists make it out to be.
On the first day of the shutdown, polls showed that 60% of the people held Republicans accountable for the shutdown, while 40% blamed Clinton. Now keep in mind that many of us though the gov't shutdown was a great thing, and would have answered a poll question in a manner to "blame Republicans". The poll method was inherently biased since it assumed that a gov't shutdown was "bad".
The statist media staged an all-out assault on the GOP. This was before Fox News and the internet, so people only got one side of the story. But even then, Gingrich got the message out with help from talk radio and millions of dedicated supporters.
After 3 weeks, I remember watching Nightline, and they had a poll showing that the country was split 50/50 on who they blamed for the shutdown. Again, keep in mind there were a lot of us who thought the shutdown was good, and "blamed" Republicans for it. So you probably actually had 55%-60% of the people supporting the GOP here. The Clinton folks were fully aware of this as they paid very close attention to the polls.
The next day, the usual RINO suspects like Bob Dole and a few House moderates caved. The result was the end of the Republican Revolution. From that day forward, all Clinton had to do was threaten to shut the gov't down again, and the GOP would roll over and give him what he wanted.
And remember those "radical House Republicans", who were hated by the American people for shutting down their beloved gov't? Guess what? The American people returned them to office in 1996. And in 1998. And in 2000. And in 2002.
By contrast, look how they responded to Dole's sellout.
Yep, huge margins , too. The biggest growth was when? 2002 wasn't it? With the that Anti-Christ Rino heading the ticket. Look,, go vote CP and be a marginal voter.Terry McAuliffe will french kiss you for your principled stands just as the DNC's media readers are enjoying your principled stands.