Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72
Author: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Release: January 1, 1973
Publisher: Straight Arrow Books
Genre: Elections, Politics, America, Gonzo Journalism
ISBN-10: 0879320532
ISBN-13: 978-0879320539
Synopsis: Dr. Thompson’s first-hand account of the battle for the 1972 presidency.
Declassified by Agent Palmer: Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ‘72 Shows the Rotting Core of Politics from 50 Years Ago
Quotes and Lines
When I went to Washington I was determined to avoid this kind of trap. Unlike most other correspondents, I could afford to burn all my bridges behind me–because I was only there for a year, and the last thing I cared about was establishing long-term connections on Capitol Hill. I went there for two reasons: (1) to learn as much as possible about the mechanics and realities of a presidential campaign, and (2) to write about it the same way I’d write about anything else–as close to the bone as I could get, and to hell with the consequences.
So this is more a jangled campaign diary than a record or reasoned analysis of the ‘72 presidential campaign. Whatever I wrote in the midnight hours on rented typewriters in all those cluttered hotel rooms along the campaign trail–from the Wayfarer Inn outside Manchester to the Neil House in Columbus to the Wilshire Hyatt House in L.A. and the Fontainebleau in Miami–is no different now than it was back in March and May and July when I was cranking it out of the typewriter one page at a time and feeding it into the plastic maw of that goddamn Mojo Wire to some hash-addled freak of an editor at the Rolling Stone news-desk in San Francisco.
What Nixon and Mitchell have done in three years–despite the best efforts of the sharpest and meanest young turks the Democratic opposition can call on–is reduce the U.S. Supreme Court to the level of a piss-poor bowling team in Memphis–and this disastrous, nazi-bent shift of the federal government’s Final-Decision-making powers won’t even begin to take effect until the spring of ‘72.
I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?
The assholes who run politics in this country have become so mesmerized by the Madison Avenue school of campaigning that they actually believe, now, that all it takes to become a Congressman or a Senator–or even a President–is a nice set of teeth, a big wad of money, and a half-dozen Media Specialists.
A lot of blood has gone under the bridge since then, and we have all learned a hell of a lot about the realities of Politics in America. Even the politicians have learned–but, as usual, the politicians are much slower than the people they want to lead.
The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy–then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. Probably the rarest form of life in American politics is the man who can turn on a crowd & still keep his head straight–assuming it was straight in the first place.
There is probably some long-standing “rule” among writers, journalists, and other word-mongers that says: “When you start stealing from your own work you’re in bad trouble.” and it may be true.
All I ever wanted out of this grueling campaign was enough money to get out of the country and live for a year or two in peaceful squalor in a house with a big screen porch looking down on an empty white beach, with a good rich coral reef a few hundred yards out in the surf and no neighbors.
George Wallace is one of the worst charlatans in politics, but there is no denying his talent for converting frustration into energy.
…but 1972 had not been a vintage year for paper wisdom…
…the nature of the New Hampshire primary. There is nothing else quite like it “an intensely personal kind of politics that quickly goes out of style when the field starts narrowing down and the survivors move on to other, larger, and far more complex states.”
Am I turning into a political junkie? It is not a happy thought–particularly when I see what it’s done to all the others.
Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?
“When you say perceive you imply the difference between what the candidate is and the way the public or the voters see him.
And I think that conceivably this country is ready for a kind of presidential candidate who is genuinely radical, someone who might call for the confiscation of all inherited wealth, for instance, or a 100 percent excess-profit tax. . .
You almost have to be a rock star to get the kind of fever you need to survive in American politics.