Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 brings together articles written by Hunter S. Thompson during his time as a political correspondent for Rolling Stone on the 1972 Presidential campaign, in which George McGovern ran up against incumbent Richard Nixon. Thompson follows the campaign through rallies around the country, the Democratic and Republican conventions, up until the aftermath of the disheartening landslide loss which saw Nixon re-elected. Thompson’s political leanings are strongly toward the Democrats, his sympathies tend to lie with the McGovern camp and he focuses much of his attention there, but he doesn’t withhold his criticisms of the troubled campaign.
“McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose, as amatter of policy and aperfect expression of everything he stands for.
Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?”
Thompson throws the idea of objective political journalism out of the window, and inserts his huge personality and wit into every aspect of his journey through the political landscape. The crazy energy is felt most clearly when Thompson resorts to reprinting his jotted down during proceedings notes, where it is almost as though he can’t even begin to comprehend creating a narrative or story out of the bizarre happenings in the political world. Exhausted by looming deadlines and yet driven by the excitement of all that is happening, the down to the wire reportage imbues the writing with an intense energy that is difficult to escape. Thompson makes the political game interesting – although the extremely peculiar events and circumstances that evolve throughout the campaign also contribute.
“Compared to the Democratic Convention five weeks earlier, the Nixon celebration was an ugly, low-level trip that hovered somewhere in that grim indefinable limbo between dullness and obscenity – like a bad pornographic film that you want to walk out on, but sit through anyway and then leave the theater feeling depressed and vaguely embarrassed with yourself for ever having taken part in it, even as a spectator.
It was so bad, overall, that it is hard to even work up the energy to write about it.”
For all the journalists opinions on how things should have turned out, all their speculation just couldn’t keep up with the sheer unknowable political power of the voting public. All the well-reasoned rhetoric in the world ultimately couldn’t predict the final count. Thompson’s post-election analysis – including a particularly insightful interview with George McGovern – concludes that much of the devastating loss had to do with the loss of faith in the McGovern campaign due to the Eagleton affair (McGovern’s vice-presidential candidate was revealed as having received shock-treatment for severe depression and Eagleton was forced to resign from the ticket.) and the “mood of the nation”, fuelled by growing anxiety following the “social upheavals of the 60s.” Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 is a cynical observation of the world of presidential politics which makes for an utterly compelling read regardless of your knowledge of the American political system.
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