Hunter S. Thompson’s Gonzo take on the 1972 presidential election was such an obvious choice for this year I thought I’d have to start bribing some young journalism majors who snagged it for class back in September months before we really thought the chaos would endure past Iowa and New Hampshire. I’m sitting on a pile of to-read books and put in an order for one of the few copies at the Free Library of Philadelphia figuring by the time it worked its way through everyone who wanted some context for the apocalyptic panic gripping our country’s leading television correspondents and party leaders I’d be in the market for a new read and it might even align with the conventions which could get into some very ugly business.

 

I don’t harbor a belief that any voice from the past would have kept this election on the rails—and I have to imagine Thompson would just be lumped in with the heated rants writ large—but when the dust clears in 2017 who else could describe the freakish and ugly nature of the 2016 election? Who else will have the language to describe “Bernie bros,” Clinton’s duplicity, the Republican clown car, and everything and anything about Donald J. Trump?

 

Few memories of the 1972 election survive. The 1968 Democratic convention was much more dramatic and even the crook Nixon was old news, he’d already been in power four years and things kept chugging along. Two Rolling Stone  writers emerged with new insights on the process even during what seems to be a pretty tame election. What would a gonzo journalist make out of 2016?

 

Somehow Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72 makes this all seem familiar, even Trump... almost even Trump. Before he even gets out of the primaries, which is really most of the action is in '72, we see all the molds in which we cast candidates to this day: The Shameless Politico, the Radical Bigot, the True Believer, the Zodiac Killer, the Ibogaine Freak. At times it seems eerily prescient and has made me question my  own stances in the election—not the big obvious stuff like opposing a guy who has taken multiple op-eds out against innocent men suspected of a brutal crime and one against them even after they were proven innocent but about what we can or should aspire to—and how I look at the politics and the process. Plus, when he levels an insult he commits.

 

“Hubert Humphrey is a treacherous, gutless old ward-heeler who should be put in a bottle and sent out with the Japanese Current. The idea of Humphrey running for President makes a mockery out of things that it would take too long to explain or even list here.”

 

The 40th Anniversary Edition comes with a helpful introduction which, good as it is, I can't help but think it a shame that we need Matt Taibbi to explain that Thompson isn’t a mere drug-addled frat-boy sent to freak out the squares, but an original voice with insights that are important to explore. A letter from your younger self except more clever, more cutting, more daring and, perhaps for those reasons, less able to just cope with the compromises we have deemed necessary for the adult world. Maybe that’s what draws him to McGovern.

 

What’s the importance of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72? Same as any historical book, perspective. Seeing the pitfalls ahead, and maybe making it a bit easier to know that shit has gotten strange and dark before. We should stand up to it, but we don’t have to panic. Also it’s hilarious and well written. It does feel long for what it is, but then it’s a collection so that can’t be helped (it originally ran serialized in Rolling Stone during the election).

Read. Enjoy. If your city has better sense than Philly and it is hard to get, it will still be valuable later. Thompson's guy lost so there is a whole lot on coping and several post-mortem interviews. Good luck in November.  Unless you’re voting for Trump. The man has been scum my entire life.

Just astonishing. How absolutely screwed we are. Taibbi might annoy you - he can be a bit dude-ish in his writing at times, merry with his hilarious teenager-esque spins on traditional curses ("douchewad" being my favorite) and quick to be hyperbolic when its suitable. But you cannot, simply cannot dismiss this book on those grounds. He did his research (boy howdy) and manages to parse the absolute horse manure that is our current financial stage to the point that a layman can almost maybe understand it if he thinks about it.Yes, folks: this book requires you to think. Hard. Because you're not just trying to understand the complex legal and financial terminology being tossed around... but you're also trying to square your own finances. Square your own behavior. And that sort of ruthless efficiency at making everything okay is a problem for us humans - because that's how we got into this mess. We'll believe whatever someone who seems smart tells us - but if we used our brains even once, we'd've seen that we've been fleeced but good over the last 30+ years... and that there might just be nothing left when they're done.Much, much more at RB: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-HrBut most importantly? I implore you to read this book. It isn't about politics, it's not about left and right. It's about humanity trying to save itself from the vampire squids that are sucking every last drop of money from our pockets.

I really enjoyed this book. It was terrifying and depressing and eye-opening. A relatively short read that's packed with content, it's worth your time. He does a fantastic job of explaining some very complicated things through the use of metaphors and analogies that get you pretty close to understanding what all went on. He's hard on the perpetrators, but what else would you expect?

I noted, with some surprise, that amidst all the references and analogies Taibbi pulls off in this book, the one he missed was Hymun Roth's speech from Godfather 2. He was talking about Cuba, but you can imagine it coming out of any Goldman Sachs executive's mouth in reference to America. "We finally have what we've always wanted: a government of our own." And that's mostly what it is now. Welcome to the United States of America, property of Goldman Sachs, subject to the whims and desires of their executives.

There are still political parties, but they aren't Republican and Democrat anymore. In this world, you can either be a member of the Goldman Party or the Sachs Party, but the outcome is mostly the same. Heads they win, tails you lose.

There has been a lot of media, reports and books describing the mismanagement of wall street and mortgages in to this gambling con. This book continues on that same story but in a broader context. There are tons of reviews which outline the book quite well so I will not recap it here. What I will say is the book takes complex ideas in corporate structure or government administration and simplifies them. At times I think there is an over simplification but I often think that about issues of finance or policy. At the end of the day I am quite cynical about wall street and government and this books gives one food for thought about why we as a nation should. The book is a great read and reminds me of what journalism should be.

I wanted to read something mean and funny, only to feel a bit bad when he says in the introduction he doesn't want to be that guy that people only think of because he's mean and funny, but still. Not bad otherwise, particularly for the look into the specific varieties of crazy out there. As a former member of something not entirely unlike a cult, I already knew that people who's lives consist of a string of tiny, nameless indignities building up to a banal grey loneliness will go insane in virtually any way they're offered.