At the time, everyone I knew thought him every bit the dangerous buffoon Trump is considered now.

Yeah I wasn't exactly politically engaged at the time (was small child) but reading works from the time, especially Alison Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For, was illuminating for me about how little has changed. The frustrated liberals seeing how bad the situation in the world is but utterly failing to make the connections needed to actually fight back, the derangement that set in after Bush's stolen first election, etc.

I also read a book of essays written under clinton about (basically) the coming dominance of computer technology and its many downsides and deprivations if implemented under US capitalism. Seeing clinton's "technology=progress=moral good" BS condemned and many of the more predictable outcomes of the rise of the PC/web pointed out was nice.