fear and loathing on the campaign trail 72

Outside of that recommendation, Campaign Trail ‘72 is full of cynicism – and it’s a cynicism that borders on prescience. George McGovern, the political outsider who becomes the Democrats’ main challenger to Nixon, is, in Thompson’s words, “the only candidate in either party worth voting for”. It’s a field full of villains and heroes – or, rather, a field of villains with only one exception. This terrain suited his particular brand of craziness. It helps that, in this case, Thompson wasn’t covering an election contested by old grey technocrats in old grey suits. More than the drugs and the shirtless attorneys, this was the true innovation of his Gonzo Journalism. But he also took the idea that all journalists insert a bit of themselves into their stories, and dialled it up to 11 – Thompson and his shenanigans were, it feels at times when reading, as much part of the campaign as any of the candidates. He put in the thousands of yards required to cover an election campaign he immersed himself in his subject he spoke to everyone. This doesn’t make Thompson a bad reporter. In fact, “objective journalism” was something that he actively rebelled against – “The phase itself,” he writes, “is a pompous contradiction in terms.” Even though he presents the reality of US politics in Campaign Trail ‘72, it’s not a reality that he felt obliged to relay objectively. It’s one of the key statements of the book, and not just because of its resonance at a time when the Trump presidency is still a very raw memory, but because it says something about Thompson’s own journalism, too.

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail 72