This article blew my knickers off! The parallels between 1972 and today were spot on. Really well written and informative.
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Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention
From cash-hungry strippers to protesters dressed as vaginas.
Redner wants no part of Romney's America. He gazes around at his club. "I prefer to be in here with the decent humans," he says.
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After he left Florida's RNC and Nixon crushed George McGovern, Hunter Thompson was in no mood to forgive America.
Art by Rick Sealock
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"The 'mood of the nation' in 1972 was so overwhelmingly vengeful, greedy, bigoted, and blindly reactionary that no presidential candidate who even faintly reminded 'typical voters' of the fear & anxiety of the 1960s had any chance at all of beating Nixon," Thompson wrote. "All they wanted in the White House was a man who would leave them alone and do anything necessary to bring calmness back into their lives — even if it meant turning the whole state of Nevada into a concentration camp for hippies."
Forty years later, many Americans are again greedy and afraid — afraid of immigrants, afraid of upsetting "job creators" by not giving them tax breaks the country can't afford, and afraid of paying 11 cents more for their pizza so that the kid delivering it can have health insurance.
Who knows where President Mitt Romney plans to put the hippies. But one thing is for sure: He'll leave Americans alone, just as the Sunshine State has left Floridians alone all these years. Ponzi schemers will proliferate. Developers will bulldoze pristine land into parking lots. Everyone will carry a gun. Unless you're poor, of course. Then you'll have to piss into a cup.
But if 16 years of Romney and Ryan's right-wing republic get to you, take Thompson's advice: "Load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard."
Mexico, here we come.
3 comments
Why aren't there more comments on this article? I really do hope it's because everybody was so amazed that the best writing around is on a free publication rather than one of the big "news"papers.
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