Did anyone here vote for Ross Perot in 1992 because of his anti-NAFTA stance? (nt)

[Nye Bevan]

[onehandle]

1. He got my attention, but I only vote for Democrats.

I remember mentioning him to my wife. She hit me on the nose with a newspaper and said, 'Bill Clinton. You are voting for Bill Clinton!'

I may be remembering this wrong.

[tridim]

2. He was good for comedy, remember Admiral Stockdale?

GRIDLOCK!

[Nye Bevan]

3. "Who am I? Where am I?" (or something like that) (nt)

[HERVEPA]

27. Actually, he was trying to explain why he was running, but looked foolish doing it.

He knew who he was and where he was.

[RKP5637]

28. That, was incredible!!! n/t

[cherokeeprogressive]

50. I remember it as "Who am I? Why am I here?"

I've been wrong before though.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

4. He was a war hero who was in over his head.

Not a bad guy or unintelligent. He just underestimated the political environment.


But given his military service he deserves more respect than what he was given.

[sufrommich]

7. I agree, his treatment made me cringe. nt

[betterdemsonly]

12. I didn't understand the free trade business back then

Nowadays I would be strongly tempted. I voted for Clinton because I wanted Universal Health Insurance and the Clinton's ran on it.

[winter is coming]

46. I felt sorry for Stockdale.

In any case I don't think Perot/NAFTA/92 is that close an analogy to anything likely to happen in 2016.

For starters, I haven't seen any potential candidates on the Dem side who capture that ambiance of, "What the fuck was that?" combined with, "Damn, he's right." And, shallow though it is, Perot was funny-looking and funny-sounding. That hurt him.

NAFTA wasn't carrying the baggage of a previous widely-debated treaty that a lot of Americans reviled. The effort to promote the TPP now is hampered by our actual experiences with NAFTA. It's a lot harder to sell "It will be good for trade" now than it was in the 90s. A lot of Americans are much worse off now than they were in '92. It's a much tougher room now than it was then.

So implying that people didn't choose Perot because of NAFTA and therefore wouldn't reject a pro-TPP candidate now in favor of an anti-TPP one is a big stretch. If an otherwise marketable candidate came out against TPP, yes, people have been burned enough that they might reject a TPP supporter or equivocator in favor of the anti-TPP candidate.

[newfie11]

5. I was going to vote for him until he backed out

When he again decided he WAS going to run I still voted for Clinton.

[TacoD]

19. I remember my dad was leaning Perot (I was a teenager) until he quit and then came back.

I wonder how many votes he would have received had he not done that.

[newfie11]

57. As I can recall he was doing quite well

We thought he had a chance but when he quit it aggravated many. There was no reason given. Like me they changed their vote.
I've never heard why he pulled out and then why he came back. Weird!

[bigwillq]

6. I voted for Perot in 1996

1996 was the first election I was eligible to vote in.

Perot got my vote by default, mainly because I didn't like Bill Clinton or Bob Dole.

[mmonk]

8. His may have been a failed campaign but it frightened

the establishment enough that they held Congressional Hearings if I recalled. Of course, you have to get enough votes to scare them. So vote your conscience and you might be surprised at the attention if enough of you do.

[Go Vols]

9. Perot liked charts and graphs a lot,

voted for Bill tho.

[SheilaT]

10. I gave serious thought to voting for him, but

then he closed down his campaign. Restarting it a few weeks later made it clear he was not the kind of guy I'd want as President, so I voted for Bill Clinton.

[ismnotwasm]

11. Nope

I was voting socialist party back then

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. F now

None of my friends were down with Pearot.

[bklyncowgirl]

14. I was tempted

If he'd had a better shot of winning I would have.

[Chan790]

15. Well, I was 13...but I probably would have.

It didn't take a genius to see that FTAs were a load of bad shit for American workers.

[polichick]

16. No, I fell for Slick Willie - and the giant sucking sound has yet to stop.

[liberal_at_heart]

36. I fell for it too. Not only did he pass NAFTA, but he also repealled Glass-Steagall and

the socially progressive, economically conservative Democrats seem to forget he also passed DADT. I won't fall for that crap again.

[polichick]

48. It's amazing to me that those of us who were conned by...

Clinton I and Obama would even consider round three!

[TheKentuckian]

58. I'm not falling for the con again so some of us can learn.

[polichick]

59. Yay! I'm not either.

[Zorra]

17. No. But if he had been a liberal Democrat, I may have voted to nominate him because of it. nt

[Stardust]

18. Yes, and I talked 2 friends into voting for him as well. Nt

[Ino]

20. Yes, I did (nt)

[JI7]

21. didn't Gore debate him on the issue ?

[arcane1]

29. On Larry King:

[JI7]

35. i can't imagine cnn doing something like this these days

[snooper2]

39. I wonder what Gore would say about this now LOL, 14:15 in, listen he calls Rush Limpnuts

a "Distinguished American"

Not to mention everything he says NAFTA would do is false LOL.....

[treestar]

22. In those days no one would have recognized him as a 1%er nt

[JonLP24]

47. Probably because there wasn't a 1%

Technically there always is as there is always a 99%, a .01%, a 7.6%, etc when it comes to data & statistics of any kind. What I mean is the concentration is much higher (1920's high).

Free trade agreements are the biggest blows causing the inequality.

[Brother Buzz]

23. No, I voted for him because James (Who am I? Why am I here?) Stockdale was on the ticket

[Bluenorthwest]

24. I'm not a single issue voter, and Perot was a known racist who owned vote rigging apparatus and

favored slashing Social Security. Big money right winger.

[Contrary1]

25. I voted for him.

My husband had just started working at EDS. On his very first day on the job, I suffered a miscarriage. That evening, when we came home from the hospital, there was a huge floral arrangement waiting on the porch.

Then, came the phone call...he was to take time off (with full pay) for as long as was needed to help me recover and take care of our other two children. This, after spending less than an hour at his desk.

The employee handbook stated that Mr. Perot believed family should come first, and it was more than just words.

It was for this reason, along with his anti-NAFTA, that earned him my respect.

[GoneFishin]

26. Yes. I believed him about the "giant sucking sound".

His Stockdale pick was a mistake though.

[MannyGoldstein]

30. No, spoiling the election and getting Bush re-elected

was too worrisome.

Plus Perot was a nut.

[JonLP24]

31. I was 6

I did watch all 3 of the debates on YouTube & he broke it down real simple while Clinton's & Bush's logic didn't make any damn sense

“If you're paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory south of the border, pay $1 an hour for your labor, have no health care, have no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement, and you don't care for anything but making money, then there will be a giant sucking sound going south.” -- Ross Perot

[LiberalAndProud]

32. No. He stopped looking sane way before I had a chance to vote for him.

He had a good idea or two. Doesn't mean I'd vote for him.

[Politicalboi]

33. Perot got me started

I turned 18 in 1978 but didn't vote till 1992. I saw his charts and was impressed. Then he talked about Ninja's at his daughters wedding that killed his dogs, and ever since then, I didn't take him seriously. Reminds of the "sniper fire" lady.

Telling tales that don't make sense, or can be shown a tall tale with video. I hope Hillary doesn't create an ISIS stole my Scooby Van and that is why she missed an event.

[MadrasT]

34. I was mighty tempted. But no. n/t

[Agnosticsherbet]

37. Ross Perot ran on economic nationalism, balance the federal budget, increase the war on drugs,

Last edited Wed Apr 22, 2015, 07:40 PM - Edit history (1)

and united people over against President Bush's tax increases after promising, "Read my lips. No new taxes."

The largest part of his support were Reagan Republicans and Libertarians though he did draw a few Democrats because he opposed NAFTA with his complaint over the noise of "that loud sucking sound."

I did not vote for him, because I don't vote for Libertarians or Republicans.

[MerryBlooms]

51. +100% rec!

[JonLP24]

63. I didn't see it as "economic nationalism" at all

I don't even know what that is. Balancing the budget is a good thing & both Bush and Clinton were "tough on crime" (part of the "triangulation&quot .

Like I said on another post I don't remember but I wasn't there but watched all 3 of the debates (it was hilarious on most other issues both Clinton or Bush began their response with "I agree with Ross Perot" so obvious what their campaign strategy was), the Larry King debate, & one of those videos (the one that begins with the Cicero(spelling?) quote) all this year in fact & researched the historical events of the 1992 campaign.

My hobbies are politics, economics, sports, & the economics of sports. An understanding of economics really made a lot of sense of a lot of things. In 1992 anyway his economic arguments were logical & made sense. Everything he said before "loud sucking sound" was common sense. I think maybe his comparison to top international countries could be misunderstood as "economic nationalism" but to me it clearly was a comparison to countries that were doing it better suggesting we should increase education spending, transportation, & technologies calling it "investments". He was quite critical of "voodoo economics" comparing how much the US pays CEOs to how much Germany & Japan pays their CEOs.

The national electorate views are quite diverse no matter what label the give themselves & it is amazing most vote for the challenger because the economy sucks right now without an understanding of why it does. The best case example is Jimmy Carter where are chain of historical events exploded because of the embargo (as a top importer high gas prices or anything like control of oil supply cripples the US economy -- the shale gas boom is a game changer there (ironically Jimmy Carter predicted the shale gas boom as pointed to the reserves as a way to achieve energy independence during his "malaise speech&quot . So because the country became "Reagan Republicans" and it wasn't until the end of a Bush's 1st term during a 1992 recession which "voodoo economics" was directly responsible for. Perot received 19% of the popular vote, 35% according to exit polls said they would have voted for him if they didn't feel it was a voted vote so if all the "wasted vote" people voted for him anyway he would have had over 50% of the popular vote (how that translates to the electoral college I have no idea).

I generally wouldn't vote Libertarians (disastorous economic views, good on foreign policy, good on civil liberties -- generally speaking. Not referring to politicians that change their views to make it in Republican primaries or Republican states) Republicans disastorous views on everything. Democrats generally better on all the issues but depends on the Democrat, especially the "Warren-Wing" or Republicans either & Ross Perot has endorsed every Republican since 2000 so I have no idea why he is endorsing "voodoo economics" essentially so I'm not making an argument you should have or anything like just saying 1992 he had the better of the 3 overall (free trade is primarily responsible for the 1920s wealth concentration levels we see today "history repeats itself". "Voodoo economics" was also responsible for The Great Depression) but he is a Republican on the social issues.

[Agnosticsherbet]

66. I lived through that campaign.

"Economic nationalism is a body of policies that emphasize domestic control of the economy, labor, and capital formation, even if this requires the imposition of tariffs and other restrictions on the movement of labor, goods and capital."

It is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on who the nationalist might be.

His deficit cutting and balanced budget proposals were increasing gasoline taxes and cutting Social Security. Gasoline taxes, though technically paid by everyone, is a regressive tax that hurts the poor and middle class and is not noticed by the wealthy. Social Security hurts the elderly, and has no real relationship to the deficit.

Though liberals and Libertarians may agree on some social issues, we do not agree for the same reasons. Many Libertarians, including both Paul's, originally opposed a national laws against gay marriage but supported the right of states to outlaw gay marriage.

Libertarians can, in some issues, be good allies. Their absolute individualism, however, encourages what is often called a meritocracy but is actually permitting the rich to do what they want because they earned it and the poor did not.

At the time, I agreed that we should not ship our jobs to Mexico to save a buck. It would have come with a package of draconian polices that would have made the rich much richer.

[Chemisse]

38. I don't think I knew he was anti-NAFTA.

I didn't vote for him because he was kookie.

I wasn't crazy about Bill Clinton at that time (I had wanted Tsongas and thought Clinton was a bag of bullshit). But I voted for him, and wound up liking him a lot, in spite of his shaky first year in office and his rightward leanings. I didn't care in the slightest who he had sex with.

[Xyzse]

40. No, I was way too young at the time.

My mother was for Perot though, my father was for Clinton.

My father was further to the left than I was, he kinda balanced my mother. My mother is now currently firmly embedded with the Tea Party, and I just don't talk politics with her.

[Erose999]

41. My parents would have, had he not dropped out of the race and re-entered. They eventually voted for

Clinton.

[frylock]

42. raises hand

[hifiguy]

43. Thought about it, but pulled the lever for Clinton.

Election was going to be too close to possibly waste a vote, unlike in '80, and I have never regretted my vote for John Anderson that year.

[Autumn]

44. No, I have never voted for any politician other than Democrats.

But I have recently changed my affiliation from Democratic to Unaffiliated so I guess it all depends on who runs in this primary.

[greatauntoftriplets]

45. Good God no.

[deutsey]

49. No, but I was happy that he triggered discussion

about the national debt and NAFTA because the other candidates weren't going there.

[cherokeeprogressive]

52. I did.

[Liberal In Texas]

53. No, but I told him when I met him I was glad he got back in the race.

Meaning it would help Clinton, but I left that part out.
Voted for Bill.

[louis-t]

54. "Kin ah finish?"

Yep, voted for him in '92 because of NAFTA. He was right.

[xfundy]

55. Some mean people called his daughter a LESBIAN!11!

As if that's some kind of insult.

[ms liberty]

56. No. Except for NAFTA and before Election Day...

He had managed to prove himself to be batshit crazy.

[customerserviceguy]

60. I voted for Perot

but not because of NAFTA. I figured that Washington, D. C. needed a shake-up, and a Perot presidency would have provided that. In any case, I also figured (correctly) that Bill Clinton would already get Washington State's electoral vote, and as we voted late in the game, it was also a bit of a protest vote against the status quo, and in the end, it didn't hurt anyone.

[hunter]

61. Hell no.

Fuck him and the dirty government money he rode in on.

[2banon]

62. No. after 12 long years of Ray-Gun and Poppy Bush, getting a Democrat in office was seen as an

absolute imperative.. no question.

And at the time, I was completely naive on the matter of NAFTA, until after it went into effect.


Then of course it was too late. But it should be remembered that NAFTA was written up by the Poppy Bush administration which is the other thing we didn't know at the time, in fact it was largely the State Dept which included Rogue Characters like Kissinger and John Negroponte together with Big Ag and other Big Corporations et al.

Clinton signed off on it.. we can only speculate as to why he did. But now it's Obama's turn, and he's just another Third Way Dem as it turned out with really great "grassroots" campaign rhetoric. Attended a few community meetings, so that he can build grassroots organizer resume/creds- gets into office and who fills all his cabinet positions but Wall Streeters.

Won't be buying into any of that kind of bullshite anymore.

[HeiressofBickworth]

64. I waivered -- Perot/Clinton/Perot/Clinton......

But it was Stockdale's debate performance that cooled me to Perot. I was concerned that it showed poor judgment to select a running-mate who couldn't keep up. I believed Perot on NAFTA and, of course, history has proved him right. In the end, I voted for Clinton.

[Hekate]

65. I've been voting for Democrats since 1968, and sometimes they win. 3rd Party never does.

But he was amusing.