The closeness of the 2000 election is the best thing that’s happened to the Republican party in years. It caused a vast swath of the Dim faithful to come unglued and wallow in their sense of victimhood. The resulting conspiracy mongering and paranoia about the “Bush Crime Family” has instilled a sense of futility in them. They think they aren’t winning elections because of Rove’s dirty tactics and the Christian Reconstructionists control of touch screen voting machines. In reality, they aren’t winning elections, in part, because their belief of this nonsense.
The emergence of Dean nutcase wing of the party makes them look ridiculous to enough voters to make a difference in elections. The loons may have never been able to seize the wheel and steer down the road to hell if not the closeness of 2000 and all the MoveOn types that had their idiot switch flipped to the on position by the events that November.
You should never try to convert or hush up a lib ranting about 2000. Their obsession with it has been, and continues to be, their undoing. It’s a beautiful thing.