The political world of the Mystery Business(TM) Era, especially the Early Period, is quite unique for the strip. Where the story of Day by Day has been steadily ratcheting paranoia, racism and delusion since the election of Obama, this point in time isn't like that. Oh, there's racism and a LOT of delusion, but it tends to lurk in the corners and under surface, so to speak.
No, what's clearest about this time is how much more confident and content Muir is. It's not that his base politics are any less vile. He's still racist, still misogynistic, still authoritarian. But seeing yourself on the clearly winning side, with your opponents locked out forever makes him somewhat mellow. Total victory is almost assuredly at hand, so yeah, you just have to wait, and they'll either see that you're right, or be irrelevant nobodies forever on the margins. And that sense of assurance can give Muir a deceptive appearance of acceptance. He's a reactionary asshole through and through--he will demonstrate this constantly--but he hasn't gone down as many crazy rabbit holes as he will later. A Muir who thinks feminism is dying is a sexist Muir who isn't calling for the end to female suffrage. A Muir who thinks that Blacks are starting to accept a proper American viewpoint is a racist Muir who isn't a naked white supremacist. And a Muir who thinks the nation understands what needs to be done and that the right people will be in charge to do this forevermore is an authoritarian Muir who isn't an outright fascist calling for either dictatorship or a coup against the leftist pretenders who think daring to, ha, win an election means something. He's rotten at the core of him, but there's so much less of that core showing, being rubbed raw by exposure to the world.
And that's the essential essence of Mystery Business(TM) Era DbD, especially in the Early Period. This is a Muir who thinks that he's won. That Bill Clinton has been demonstrated to be a fluke. That the story's finished, and all he has to do is ride along and laugh at those losers who dared to oppose he and his. It's a sense that will not last--it will in fact be starting to crack up by the tail end of the Mystery Business(TM) Era. And once it's gone, it is gone forever. Muir will never get it back, least of all because he'll start demanding impossible things from the people he imagines can restore it for it.
But what does this mean? Well, in the political scene outside the cozy offices of Mystery Business(TM), we generally focus on three things, two domestic, and one foreign. Domestically we have on one side, Dubya, and his advisors, presented as a bunch of wily, capable statesmen, and on the other, the Democrats, a pathetic, crooked ineffectual opposition laboring under the delusion they can somehow beat Dubya. The depictions of Dubya will seem eerily familiar to those used to Muir's depiction of the Trump presidency--a Republican president widely seen as being thick is portrayed as an extremely capable and canny political operator with the common touch. The Democrats, on the other hand, are a lot more farcical than their latter day Evil Conspiracy of Evil iteration. Muir may view them as crooks, but petty crooks, running ineffectual schemes as the inevitable Permanent Republican Majority grinds them to dust.
In foreign policy we largely focus on the forces of terrorism, uniformly brown-skinned and Muslim, who are just as hapless as the Democrats, but also much eviler. The buildup to and fighting of the war in Iraq takes the same tone, with foreign nations and international organizations who object being likewise painted as ineffectual and corrupt. This opposition will also produce portraits of an anti-war Left as a barely-differentiated mass of latter day hippies for Muir to scorn and metaphorically punch. This will produce an actual character in time, but for now, they exist to be a counterpart of Muir's Liberal Character Who Is Always Wrong, these being somehow More Wrong.
This the political world of DbD in this time period. One side holds all the power, and is always right. Muir may object to a few individual Republicans, such as Trent Lott and John McCain, but by and large, he is blithely supportive of the GOP and especially the Dubya Administration. He is absolutely convinced of their power and popularity, and just as certain that nothing they can do will ever end it.
This will have very notable effects in the future.
