I am a bit older than George Zornick, but I did not pay much attention to national politics until after Bush was in office. So I can understand what he means when he writes:

My political consciousness developed exclusively in the Bush era, perhaps largely as a reaction to it. Despite all the polling and indicators pointing at an Obama win, it's been difficult to truly envision Washington, DC and the country in any other way. I'm sure this was largely true for people of all ages and experiences during the darkest days of this past decade, but it's worth noting that the only political world young folks knew to this point was one in which Karl Rove's divisive, fear-based 50-percent-plus-one strategy always prevailed, Bill O'Reilly was dominating and scary, and Barack Hussein Obama gave a hell of a convention speech but could never really be president in any realistic scenario.