Before he was a presidential candidate, and then a CNN host, and then a campaign surrogate for one Donald Trump — Newt Gingrich was the House Speaker. And it was Gingrich who led the Republicans to sweeping wins during the Bill Clinton heyday and even charged in with a new tactic in mind: the government shutdown.

Let’s recap the events that led up to that fateful news conference in a throwback feature breaking down the opposition to President Clinton and his liberal agenda:

Contract with America

Before Trump’s highly publicized contract with the American worker (the white working-class voted for Trump by nearly 40 points), Gingrich had penned a national platform for the Republican Party 22 years early with a document of a similar title. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a member of the Progressive Caucus he had helped establish a few years earlier, called the plan a “fraud.”

The so-called Contract with America attacked the political establishment. It called for lower taxes, less government welfare, more personal responsibility, stated a support for the nuclear family, and promised to restore the American Dream.

Trump’s contract promises much of the same, while also stating its intention to repeal healthcare reform, NAFTA and deliver on immigration reform and a deportation force. Trump tapped into the nerves of the Republican voter with a resounding message that establishment politicians had no connectivity to, much like Gingrich had done earlier. That may be one reason the former House Speaker was one of the first Washington insiders to give the president-elect a public endorsement.

Republican Revolution

Gingrich led the Republicans to a stunning 54-seat gain in the House, while eight new GOP senators were ushered in to serve the country. It was dubbed the “Republican Revolution,” which marked the end of the Conservative Coalition (comprised of both Democrats and Republicans) and began a new era of partisanship in Washington.

The “Us versus Them” mentality continues to this day.

While Gingrich and the Republicans had control of both houses for the first time in 40 years, they were forced to work with President Clinton on compromise because he had veto power — but that still didn’t stop the GOP from enacting all but one bill that was in the Contract with America — that of congressional term limits.

An obstructionist approach

When Ted Cruz filibustered the Senate on a budget deal in 2013 that effectively shut down the federal government, he owed a debt of gratitude to the former House Speaker. Gingrich blazed that trail many years before during the blizzard of ’96, when 800,000 federal workers were furloughed for three weeks.

President Clinton and Gingrich had come to a standstill on budget negotiations, and neither would budge.

It was the dawn of a new polarization in American politics that has seen, time and again, obstructionism from members of a dominant party when the opposing political faction refuses to cross party lines in an earnest deal-making manner. It has led to dysfunction and an establishment of public servants that, distanced from their home districts, have appeared out of touch with today’s populous.

During his 2012 run for president, Gingrich said the strong-armed tactics used during his time in the speakership were born out of his patriotism. It was “driven by how passionately I felt about this country,” he said.