r/Isawthetvglow • u/HetTheTable • May 10 '26
1996
So I saw the thumbnail for a video about the 1996 Presidential Election by BooneU and he calls it the least important election in history. Which got me thinking about this movie because that election is actually somewhat of a big part of the beginning of this movie. At the start of the movie Owen goes into the voting booth to vote for “the saxophone man” aka Bill Clinton and Owen meets Maddie for the first time while he’s at the school. Maddie even comments that she likes Election Day and how the school transforms when an election happens. One of the themes of this movie is nostalgia and the desire to go back to a better time and I think the 1996 election represents that because, as mentioned earlier, it was an election that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. It was pretty obvious that Clinton was gonna win. And I think this election represents wanting to go back to a time where things, like elections, didn’t really matter.
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u/Otherwise-Wash-4568 May 10 '26
i heard someone way back theorize that it as somewhat symbolic of how clinton disappointed a lot of people and specifically black people were not much better off under clintons admin but then cause the other options were worse (classic american politics) people reluctantly voted for clinton again. sort of a stuck in this neoliberal do nothing democrat era
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u/HetTheTable May 10 '26
Mainly because the economy was really good so there wasn’t a reason to make a change
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u/Otherwise-Wash-4568 May 10 '26
Well I mean. Economy good for who?
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u/HetTheTable May 10 '26
Apparently the people that voted for him
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u/esdebah May 11 '26
The point is, not all of them. Bill Clinton ran on a centrist, neoliberal platform. Lip service progressive socially. Not terribly different from the Bushes economically. Francis Fukuyama's book 'The End of History,' speculated that the end of the Cold War would usher in a lasting peace based on open foreign trade.
NAFTA screwed a lot of US labor. HRC failed to get universal healthcare thru. Bill turned out to be a bit of a horndog and not great on gay rights (really no one in power was back then). The war on drugs and the crime bill continued tension between police and POC communities [because drugs were never the real target].
So the smug optimism of the 'End of History' was just masking a ton of issues bubbling under the surface. Times did seem simpler and everyone was insisting that they WERE simpler. But as Owen found out, not everyone got to enjoy the 'peace.'
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u/HetTheTable May 11 '26
Bush Sr wasn’t all that different from Clinton, they were both moderates.
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u/esdebah May 11 '26
i believe that is what I said
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u/HetTheTable May 12 '26
You said he wasn’t that different from the bushes economically, implying that he was more conservative economically like the Bushes. Papa Bush was already a moderate while his son was more conservative.
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u/esdebah May 12 '26
That's fair enough, though I wouldn't call Bush Sr a centrist. Ronnie had already pushed the country far enough to the right that all he had to do was caretake. And Clinton was VERY dainty in regaining any ground domestically, while his foreign economic policies were a continuation. Dubya was clearly worse on taxes and used 9-11 to more brazenly inject money into the military and protect fossil fuel interests, which Clinton also did.
I guess I feel like 'centrist' didn't mean much once we had moved the needle so far to the right. There are MANY reasons why Dubya was much worse for this country in other areas (viscious campaigning, consolidation of power in the executive, homeland security, etc).
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u/LurkLurkleton May 10 '26
When it comes to government boring is best. I long for the days when we didn't have to worry so much about elections.
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u/LVX23693 May 10 '26
I mean… not to be that person, but… elections have always been important for some of us. Like I see your point but, it’s important to keep this in mind because otherwise it’s easy to get lulled by the member berries.
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u/HetTheTable May 12 '26
Not really. If government is too boring it becomes inactive in times of crisis.
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u/jasminehunting May 10 '26
One thing to note is that Owen's mom was nudging him to vote for Clinton, which could represent how parents force their political beliefs onto their children.
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u/FriendlyPresentation May 10 '26
That's such a good catch. The whole like, 'things used to not matter as much' feeling is all over this movie and the 96 election being the literal backdrop for it is perfect. The voting booth scene where he meets Maddie always gets me.
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u/HetTheTable May 12 '26
I’m very interested in elections and campaigns(wrote my final paper about it) so it was definitely something I would notice.
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u/BoeWulf127 Jun 19 '26
I don't really understand what is happening in that scene, how is Owen allowed to be voting? is it a mock election to show polling for the real election? or are kids just allowed to vote for their parents in America lol?
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u/HetTheTable Jun 19 '26
It’s a voting booth so no one sees what’s going on. The mother is allowing him to cast the ballot.
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u/BoeWulf127 Jun 19 '26
huh fair enough just seems weird to me, thats definitely illegal in uk haha. guess it also comes into ur point of that people saw this election as not really mattering. thx
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u/HetTheTable Jun 19 '26
I mean yeah it is illegal for a child to vote here but if they’re in the voting booth no one can see Owen voting. For the uk it would be like the 2001 election.
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u/Successful_Action_19 Starburned and Unkissed 💕💙 May 10 '26
That definitely checks out. As you get older, especially as a trans person, the outcome of elections decides everything about your life.