ROX #15: Congrats to Clinton

B: We shot ROX #15, “Congrats to Clinton,” a week before the actual election. We didn't know for sure that he would win, and in fact we interviewed a guest who was sure that Bush the Elder would be victorious. But we knew that the show would not be televised until just after the election, so we spoke boldly, as if we knew what had happened. Of course, we were right, and our Republican guest was wrong. And for the next few months we were happy.

Yes, I voted for Clinton in 1992. I even took a video camera into the voting booth with me and recorded myself pushing the button. Have you ever seen someone actually voting on TV? Incidentally, the NWA soundtrack I laid down on top of this video generated almost as many irate calls to the station as any of our more notorious escapades.

I had never considered myself a big booster for the Democratic Party. In fact, I voted for Lenora Fulani in 1988. But I guess we got fooled by the Clinton campaign. We believed the hype.

As I said, we were happy for the next few months. Bush the Elder was on the way out, and a Democrat was coming into the Oval Office for the first time in my adult life.

Just after his inauguration, when Clinton said gays should be allowed in the military, I felt vindicated. I had voted for the right man! Here, surely, was man of conviction, who would stand up for what's right.

How silly that sounds now. It was only a matter of days before Clinton caved on the issue of gays in the military, and we got our insipid “don't ask don't tell” policy that stood until Obama finally took corrective action. Over the coming weeks and months, I would gradually lose all respect for Clinton, long before his sexual escapades with Monica Lewinsky came to light. Frankly, I don't care about the man's sex life. It was things like NAFTA that really tore it for me. I came to regret ever voting for Clinton, and in 1996 I wrote in Ralph Nader instead.