Podcast host Joe Rogan stirred controversy this past week after suggesting that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, once the face of the Democratic establishment, would now be considered more conservative than far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, at least by early-2000s political standards.
During Thursday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan and his guest, Palmer Luckey, the tech entrepreneur behind Oculus VR, discussed how shifting political landscapes have redefined what’s considered “liberal” or “conservative.” Their conversation touched on Clinton’s past opposition to same-sex marriage and how her stances from two decades ago would align today.
“Hillary, you might remember, even in 2008 she was against gay marriage,” Luckey said. “She was out there saying, ‘I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.’”
Rogan agreed, adding that Clinton’s early positions on issues like marriage equality and foreign policy would now make her “hardline” and “to the right of Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
As a New York senator in 2004, Clinton stated, “I believe that marriage is not just a bond but a sacred bond between a man and a woman.” Though she supported civil unions at the time, she did not publicly endorse same-sex marriage until 2013, when she recorded a video with the Human Rights Campaign announcing her change of heart.
Rogan’s comments come amid renewed debate over the evolution of Democratic Party values and the rightward drift of U.S. politics in general. Clinton, who served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama and ran for president twice, has long been viewed as a centrist Democrat who embraced hawkish foreign policy and Wall Street pragmatism — stances that have faced increasing scrutiny from progressives.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, by contrast, has built her career as one of the most outspoken members of the far-right. A close ally of Donald Trump, she has opposed same-sex marriage, transgender rights, and the Equality Act, while simultaneously positioning herself as a critic of U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts.
In 2022, Greene voted against a bill codifying same-sex marriage and co-sponsored legislation to ban U.S. embassies from flying the LGBTQ+ Pride flag. Despite that record, Rogan and Luckey’s exchange highlighted the complicated overlap between libertarian populism and certain progressive social positions — particularly Greene’s opposition to foreign intervention, which Rogan noted could be seen as more in line with modern left-wing skepticism of U.S. militarism.
Greene has also recently criticized her own party’s leadership and their handling of foreign aid, particularly in the Middle East. Rogan pointed to this as an example of how “labels like conservative and liberal don’t mean what they used to.”
LGBTQ+ advocates were quick to push back on Rogan’s comments. Critics noted that while Clinton’s evolution on marriage equality reflected the broader political shift of the Democratic Party, Greene has actively sought to roll back rights for LGBTQ+ Americans.
“Hillary Clinton stood before the United Nations and declared that gay rights are human rights,” former Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin said in a 2016 statement. “Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the other hand, has voted to make our marriages illegal.”
