Many of us approached the year 2000 with millennial fears of computer hell and the meltdown of modern life. These turned out to be groundless fears. Now in the days beyond and into 2001 many of us have downgraded our fears of apocalypse to simple alarm. Electoral gridlock . . . get over it. Electrical brownout . . . hold hearings. Stock market slide . . . a natural cycle. Empty shopping malls . . . time to spend. Overt government funding of church social programs . . . a necessary paradigm shift for effective government and no constitutional threat.

Said quickly, the glib explanations bring quick comfort. Taken a little more analytically, they translate into reason for alarm.

In his first inaugural address, after the political war of the 1800 election, President Thomas Jefferson made a point of enumerating the protecting principles of the still-new republic.