How did we get here, and other questions from When the Clock Broke

 

When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz

When the Clock Broke book cover

Author John Ganz

John Ganz’s book When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists,and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s is a timely and important book that covers various influential figures from the 80s and 90s who helped to shape much of the politics today. I didn’t realize how relevant and meaningful this book would be when I started reading it. Furthermore, as someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s, it was fascinating to learn more about this time period and gain a different perspective of some of the important events. I also learned more about the behind the scenes conservative wars between the neo-conservatives and the paleo-conservatives, which on the surface, seemed petty and silly, but had some serious and concerning ramifications for us today. As Ganz notes in the introduction “the protagonists of this book envisioned another end. Sensing that America as they knew it was in peril, they hoped to recast American democracy around the ‘negative solidarity’ of knowing who you hated or wanted to destroy: this system would be based on domination and exclusion, a restricted sense of community that jealously guarded its boundaries and policed its members…” (3). At times, I had to remind myself that I was reading about events and people from the 80s and 90s and not the current climate. However, Ganz’s book provides a broader context to see who the current political bacteria infecting many people has been cultured and mutated over time. While the book primarily focuses on conservative political candidates from the 1980s and 90s like Pat Buchanon, David Duke, and Ross Perot, other more mainstream figures play meaningful roles, especially in understanding how some of these far right figures captured much of the populist energy and hatred and used it to push main stream candidates like George Bush I and Bill Clinton further right. Furthermore, Ganz’s book provides important social, historical, and economic contexts for understanding how and why people were so upset with mainstream political parties like the Republicans and Democrats. I appreciated his analysis in exploring the ways that the failure of Reagan’s economic policies (i.e. cutting programs, limiting worker’s rights, being pro-corporation/business) impacted things like the middle class and people’s ability to access economic and social equality. Ganz’s book made me think about how more recent efforts towards “efficiency” and privatization will impact the current political environment. It also showed how candidates and policy makers can largely seize on people’s emotional responses to issues to push their case. While I’m no fan of Bush or Clinton, it was surprising to see how the populism of both Perot and Buchanon largely drove the policies and pandering of the main candidates. In many ways, it explains why some current candidates have attempted to also “break the clock” and rather than moving forward and making progress, they seek to return to the past and pander to people’s nostalgia for a time that can never return.

Trump looms towards the latter part of the book, especially in the chapter about Gotti, which I was surprised would be in here. Furthermore, it was surprising to learn how popular Gotti was and that many New Yorkers considered him as a mayoral candidate in the early 90s, around the time he was convicted by Giuliani. Ganz’s reporting and analysis helped to show how racial events in NYC (and in LA in an earlier chapter) helped to influence the candidates and people’s perceptions of what the mayor should be. While I clearly remember the LA Riots and all that happened, I didn’t realize how Buchanon and other conservative politicians used these events to call for a return to more conservative values. It reminded me of 2020 after the murders of citizens like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, the resulting anger and the failure to bring about change, as well as the how the politicians viewed bringing about order through force. There was no real analysis or reflection by leaders to examine what went wrong and how it could be prevented. It was interesting to learn more about the unrest in 1990s NY.

Although he only spent a chapter on Ruby Ridge, I found this subject to be incredibly fascinating. I remember this happening and read more about it in Martin A Lee’s book The Beast Reawakens, about the re-emergence of Nazism in America and Russia after WWII. Although it is kind of overlooked today, Ruby Ridge was kind of like a rallying point for White Supremacists and other government conspiracists who were distrustful of the role that the government played. Ganz shows how the events at Ruby Ridge would go on to later influence both Waco and eventually the Murrah Bombing in Oklahoma City. I also found it interesting that Bo Gritz showed up at various points in the book. In Lee’s book, he is like a connection between some of the militias that gave cover to domestic terrorists like The Order and Timothy McVeigh, but also managed to broker Randy Weaver’s surrender at Ruby Ridge (with the help of skinhead nazis). In Ganz’s book, Gritz also plays a role in trying to return POWs from Southeast Asia following the end of the Vietnam War, something that propelled Perot’s popularity and populism. Ganz relates some interesting stories about Gritz, but the whole POW speculation about soldiers left in Southeast Asian countries reminded me too of many of the action films from the 80s and how that kind of media and action hero fed into the pro-American jingoistic beliefs (and are still happening today).

Although this book was at times depressing (no fault of Ganz’s), it is important to read to gain an understanding how we arrived at the current political climate--or maybe how it never actually went away, but kind of lingered like bacteria in a petri dish, waiting for some kind of moist environment or pliant host to feed off of and infect others. In fact, Ganz's research and writing are detailed and incredibly informative. I really enjoyed the way that he connected events, characters, and social and economic conditions to explain the political implications and policies that resulted from them. While he doesn't harp on the issue, I could sense Trumpism's shadow cast over much of the conservative movement, and see how he has plagiarized from past movements and criminals to feed of people's pain and anger. If there is some hope, it’s about the cyclical nature of change that occurs, and how despite preying off of people’s fears and hatred, there comes a point where most people end up rejecting this ideology, although it might take another recession or economic downturn to eventually bring about these changes and rejections. Nevertheless, nothing stays the same and things are bound to change. Hope is the opposite of despair, and progress is a movement forward, not a nostalgic brace of the what can never be. As Johnny Thunders sang “You can’t put your arms around a memory,” and I’d like to believe that eventually people will realize the need to move forward and not backwards.