Everybody Loves The ‘90s
The decade stands as America’s new consensus for what the country should be, regardless of what it was actually like
I’m often asked what time period Americans most long to return to. The answer is obvious: the 1990s.
The decade of Bill Clinton, Pulp Fiction, Michael Jordan, and millennials’ childhood stands as the chief source of American nostalgia. It makes sense why.
America stood as the undisputed world power after winning the Cold War. The economy reached new heights of prosperity. A college degree still offered a ticket to the American dream. Crime finally began to decline, allowing cities like New York to return to relative normality. America was still over 70 percent white and the culture generally reflected it. There were no trans athletes in girls’ sports, no white privilege training in schools, and no gay marriage.
It can seem like a utopia when compared to today. While ‘90s nostalgia is particularly strong on the Right, it also appeals to liberals. There’s an implicit promise on both sides that their policies will return us to this glorious era. The majority apparently wants the End of History back.
The ‘90s is the new political consensus for America. But its return is unlikely, no matter how much the people crave its revival.
Conservatives in the 1990s would be greatly surprised that conservatives in the 2020s see the decade as the golden era. Right-wingers at the time thought they were “slouching towards Gomorrah,” as Robert Bork declared in his best-selling diatribe against ‘90s politics and culture. Prominent conservatives lambasted the violence and sexuality in movies and TV shows as signs of a sick culture. This was still a time when conservatives tried to ban popular media. Conservatives saw Bill Clinton as the Antichrist who was turning America into a sewer of depravity. Bill Bennett’s bestseller The Death of Outrage warned that Clintonism was killing American values. Rush Limbaugh and other popular conservative media personalities gained a following in this decade assailing American degradation and wishing for the return of the 1950s. Pat Buchanan’s presidential bids were built explicitly on the desire to restore that better time in contrast to the immoral ‘90s.
It’s understandable why conservatives weren’t so optimistic in that era. A Democrat was in the White House and millions of Americans still had strong memories of a more socially conservative time. The Religious Right was a major force in politics, and its leaders were horrified by the time’s social changes. Cultural pessimism resonates more with the Right than optimism.
But the political battles of the time are now largely forgotten. The Religious Right, as it existed back then, is a spent force. Now conservatives love media that would’ve given older conservatives heart attacks. Neocon John Podhoretz wrote a scathing review of the thriller Se7en in 1995. Two decades later, he was live tweeting his reactions to the latest Game of Thrones episode, a show that makes Se7en look like family fare. The nihilistic gorefest Terrifier 3 is hailed by some conservatives as a Christian classic. There are no longer conservatives railing against rock or rap music. They now love these forms of music (with the exception of your humble author’s well-known distaste for hip-hop). Conservatives no longer launch serious attempts to ban certain media products. They now see the ‘90s as a cultural paradise and love the popular music and films Robert Bork loathed.
In spite of the rhetoric you see online, conservatives are more socially liberal than they were in the ‘90s. The majority accept gay marriage, abortion, and legalized gambling. They don’t care as much about the sexual improprieties of politicians and like when leaders use vulgarities.
That’s not to say the Right is now progressivism twenty years delayed. The Right is far more supportive of immigration restriction and more openly confrontational about identity than it was in the ‘90s. It’s just no longer the conservatism the Religious Right would’ve recognized. This is why contemporary conservatives view the 1990s with far different eyes than the ones who wrote during it.
Along with the political battles, the racial conflicts of the ‘90s are also forgotten. It allows for people to think of it as the “post-racial” decade when Americans magically stopped seeing color. That’s far from the truth. Black crime still ravaged American cities, even if it went into decline later in the decade. There were plenty of race riots in the early ‘90s, with the LA riots being the deadliest. Black nationalism was on the rise, with rappers promoting it and Louis Farrakhan reaching the peak of his popularity. Campuses were hotbeds of political correctness and western civilization courses were denounced as racist. Affirmative action was an established, and egregious, part of life. Immigration, both legal and illegal, spiked during the decade. “White backlash,” as represented by David Duke, Pat Buchanan, and other figures, broke out as a natural response to the nation’s racial woes.
America’s racial dynamics were a bit simpler at the time. It was still defined by the black-white formula. The effects of immigration were only noticeable in a few states rather than apparent everywhere. As mentioned above, we were still over 70 percent white and cultural products still reflected that. Black culture whites enjoyed were usually along the lines of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which conveyed the idea blacks could be just like whites if given the right opportunities. Overt anti-white racism was confined to rap songs and Farrakhan speeches. Bill Clinton highlighted one notorious example from Sistah Souljah to help his ‘92 campaign. No Democrat would condemn anti-white racism today. You didn’t have to worry about your kid being taught he was evil due to his whiteness. It’s easy to see why Americans view it as “post-racial” compared to the chaos and confusion of today.
The myth, not the reality, of the ‘90s is the model for American consensus. For conservatives, the reality may run counter to their stated preferences, but that’s not what matters. In their memory, the decade stands as a time when they could go to the classic Pizza Hut, play Pokemon, enjoy a nice white suburb, and expect a middle class job when they grow up. That memory is stronger than any reality-based narrative one can offer. It also just seems much better than the world we live in today.
America is not a society that cares deeply about the past. Our historical longings are limited to what existed in our own lifespans, not something in ancient history. That sets us apart from right-wingers in the Old World that emphasize the mythic past and ancestral memory. We just want the era of our youth back, not some primordial golden age shrouded by the mists of time.
The reality of the ‘90s may sit awkwardly with the “anti-liberal” visions expressed by right-wing intellectuals, but the Online Right runs with it anyway.
This isn’t something unique to the Right. Nineties nostalgia is popular among many Americans, regardless of politics. The myth shapes what the “silent majority” thinks this country should be like. They would love for a candidate to promise to rewind the country back to 1999, with all the latest technology of course.
But we can’t return to the ‘90s. We’re no longer the undisputed superpower. College is no longer the guaranteed ticket to the middle class. We’re barely 57 percent white and our culture reflects that. The economy is rapidly changing and making the dream of the suburban paradise more unobtainable. The comfort, security, and culture of the ‘90s is not coming back.
That realization drives some of the “radicalism” we see on the internet. The world millennials expected to grow up is gone. Memories of that past make the present bleaker for Zoomers. They hope their drastic political solutions will bring back the 90s, whether it’s through tariff maximalism, mass deportations, or full socialism. These people demand radicalism to return to the not-at-all radical ‘90s.
The ‘90s remain the “good ole days” we compare to the problems of today. Popular memory, shaped by media and memes, longs for the decade’s return. The myth shapes our national consensus and what we think of as normal.
Is this situation ideal? Probably not. Nostalgia doesn’t make for the best political outlook. But it’s hard to argue with people who say the 90s were better, especially when the memory sees a whiter, happier country.