Wasn't the economy having a wobble in 2001? I seem to recall that things started going downhill soon after Bush came in, so we got to blame Bush for it even though it probably wasn't really his fault, as he hadn't been around long enough.

2001 xenophobia felt very much like it was motivated by momentary fear and anger, rather than the sort of insidious xenophobia we're seeing now, if that makes any sense. I guess in 2001, I would think "You're saying those things because of how you feel and are probably an okay person who will get over it." whereas now I just think "You're a xenophobic asshole."