The Eerie Similarities Between the 1992 Election and the 2020 Election

For my 2020 Election class final, I had to write a paper comparing a primary season to the 2020 primary season. My instant thought was to write about the 1992 election simply because I remember my professor saying that Bill Clinton did not win early on, which is what happened with presumptive nominee Joe Biden. However, now looking into it while writing this paper, I realized the two elections have a lot more in common than I thought. Will they have similar results, in which the Democratic party will win? Or will Trump win? Who knows, but here are some similarities I found.

1. The Republican nominee is the incumbent- Bush in 1992, Trump in 2020.
2. The Democratic nominee has a history of sexual assaults- although we all know about the famous Monica Lewinsky scandal, back in 1992 it was the Jennifer Flowers scandal for Bill Clinton. For Joe Biden, it is Tara Reade coming back to haunt him.
3. A huge global health problem is occurring- for Bush’s first term, he was dealing (or not dealing) with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For Trump, he is dealing with the the coronavirus.
4. The candidates in the primary season and election- there are some similar characters in both primaries. Governor Brown resembled Senator Sanders as both were anti-establishment and refused to take campaign contributions from billionaires. Ross Perot is similar in a way to Michael Bloomberg as they are both billionaires who were able to fund their campaign. However, Perot had a lot more success than Bloomberg.
5. No one really likes the candidates- in 1992, polls have showed that they did not want Bush back in office but they also did not completely trust Clinton. In 2020, many people do not like that Joe Biden is the nominee for the Democrats but do not want Trump in office.. Therefore, this is an election of who do you hate less?
6. THE ECONOMY!! Bush’s first term saw an economic recession from late 1990 to 1992, and this was something he could not turn around. For Donald Trump, the economy was going well for him up until the coronavirus. Now, unemployment is even worse than it was during the Great Depression. Polls have indicated since 1972, the economy needs to be stable for a candidate to win. The economy cost Bush the election, so will it cost Trump the election too if a second wave is coming and the economy is shut down?