4th
memories
Here are some things I remember, from being an old person.
I remember the turnstiles in the Willie Horton ad, representative of Michael Dukakis’s commitment to releasing black rapists and murderers.
I remember the 1991 SNL skit, a fake ad against the Brady Amendment (requiring a seven-day waiting period for hand-guns), where Chris Rock and a masked accomplice rob a nice white family as they sit at home waiting for permission to buy a handgun to protect themselves. The masked accomplice ends up shooting Chris Farley, who collapses dramatically into the coffee table, and then Chris Rock says: “Nice shot WILLIE HORTON! Why’d you have to go and do that, WILLIE HORTON?”
I remember the New Yorker Talk of the Town when the first rumors of the Lewinsky scandal came out. One of Clinton’s aides was interviewed, not knowing whether the rumors were true or not, convinced (as was the case) that the Republicans, looking for one thing (Whitewater), had found something else (Lewinsky), but adding: “If you want to know who I blame, I blame Clinton. I blame him.”
I remember the conversation I had with my friend Loren McArthur when Florida was called for Gore.
“Gore’s really going to clean up the environment.”
“We won’t be allowed to drive anymore.”
“Or throw things out. Or go to the bathroom.”
“You can go to the bathroom, but you have to recycle it.”
“You’ll have to wear a contraption that captures your waste and recycles it.”
“Then you can eat that.”
“Yes, you’ll have to eat that. It’ll be this goop, which you’ll just recycle right up and eat.”
“Gore Goop.”
“Gore Goop. And you can put it in your car.”
I remember the smug blond Republican aides outside the Dade County courthouse, grinning and chanting and pretending they were a spontaneous mob. I remember James Baker flying down to Florida and lying, lying, lying. I remember Lars-Erik Nelson, the excellent political writer for the Daily News and New York Review of Books, dying in his apartment that month of a heart attack. I always assumed it was in front of the television, watching Baker.
It was the beginning of eight bad years.
