Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Great Tragedy of the 2012 Election

I ate lunch yesterday with my grandfather and grandmother. During the course of our lunch at a local Mexican restaurant, My grandfather mentioned that he thought Mitt Romney was a lot like Richard Nixon. He meant this as a positive, because he thought both Romney and Nixon were 'People's Presidents'.

I told him I thought his comparison was funny, because I had also been making it pre-election, except as a negative. Mitt Romney reminded me of a teetotalling version of Nixon as portrayed in 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72', by Hunter S. Thompson. Always preening, always rolling out new versions of himself. Cynical to the core.

Then last night I had a dream about Hunter S. Thompson. He was a major league pitcher who was famous for pitching as many wild balls as he was striking people out. Baseball in my dream was different in that instead of a catcher, the pitcher threw balls at a drumhead, and each drumhead was decorated with an emblem that represented the pitcher. I suppose the gonzo symbol would have been appropriate for Hunter, but dreams have their own logic, and Hunter's drumhead had the silhouette of a woman's leg with a stylistic moon hovering over the top of the thigh.

I'm not a religious man, but I still have a lot of good old fashioned West Virginia superstition running through my blood--my mother's side of the family hails from Maetwan--so I thought maybe I needed to honor the demon and write about this man who keeps popping into my mind and conversation lately.

Hunter Thompson would have been great during this past election cycle. A young Hunter would have been great, I should say. One that was relatively near the beginning of his cycle of chemical self destruction. Reading his dispatches from the trail would have been wonderful, as would reading his caricatures of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Would he have found something hopeful about the community organizer from Illinois? I certainly would hope so. Would he have found something to Loathe in Mitt Romney? No doubt.

I did my feeble best to pay tribute to Thompson earlier on in the cycle (google Paul Ryan + Ibogaine to see what I mean), but no tribute is suitable.

I think Hunter would have benefited from this election as much as his writing would have benefited us.

Unfortunately though, suicides are never on time.

"Football season is over".


1 comment:

  1. gonzo was a apt term for the past election season. Watching the Romney campain was like watching a man trying to climb a flight of stairs wearing rollerskates

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