Underneath the clash and clang of controversy over presidential impeachment, public policy and personal initiative can slowly and seemingly imperceptibly improve life in America. That was the case two decades ago, amid the swirling arguments over the mostly party-line impeachment of President Bill Clinton and the Senate’s mostly party-line refusal to remove him from office.

This 1998-99 controversy occurred as conservative welfare and crime-control reforms were vastly reducing welfare dependency and crime control in America’s central cities far more than their advocates had expected.