Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone

Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone by Hunter S. Thompson Page B

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establishment ... and if Freak Power can do that in Aspen, it can also do it in other places. But if it
can’t
be done here, one of the few places in America where we can work off a proven power base—then it is hard to imagine it working in any other place with fewer natural advantages. Last fall we came within six votes, and it will probably be close again this time. Memories of the Edwards campaign will guarantee a heavy turnout, with a dangerous backlash factor that could wipe us out completely unless the Head population can get itself together and actually
vote.
Last year perhaps the Heads voted; this year we will need them all. The ramifications of this election go far beyond any local issues or candidates. It is an experiment with a totally new kind of political muscle ... and the results, either way, will definitely be worth pondering.
    Editor’s note: in November 1970, Thompson lost by 465 votes.

__ __ __ __
The Next Assignment . . .
    Hunter’s next story for the magazine was an investigation into the Los Angeles Police Department’s involvement in the murder of Ruben Salazar, a Chicano activist and
Los Angeles Times
columnist. It’s during this time that Hunter first began working with Oscar Zeta Acosta, a local Chicano civil rights lawyer he’d met a few years earlier. Acosta, dubbed the “Brown Buffalo” by Hunter, would soon become better known as Dr. Gonzo in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” (Hunter and Oscar’s first trip together to Las Vegas was taken so the two could discuss the Salazar case in a secure location.) He became Hunter’s attorney and aide de camp, wrote occasionally for
Rolling Stone,
and cultivated an office presence both feared and respected by other staffers.
    Undated early ’71 letter from JSW to HST
    746 Brannan Street
    San Francisco 94103
    Dear Hunter:
    Thanks for the letter and the rambling unfinished excerpts. Of course I agree with you that nothing should be done with them other than our private inspection. Selah. However, the obvious point is that we should have some sort of propaganda to coincide with the next election, either a pre-election look at the issues and the candidates (!) (did I say that?) or an election-time fire-sucking tract, or an
immediate
post-election review of the trauma. What are your thoughts on this?
    Finally, Vietnam or the Mexicans versus the L.A.P.D.: Which would you prefer to do? I’d rather have you go to Los Angeles as you’re already backgrounded in it, and I think I can get Michael Herr to Vietnam for us for his final major take.
    Letter from HST to JSW
    Jan 27 ’71
    Owl Farm
    Woody Creek, Colorado
    Dear Jann . . .
    We might be better off using some photos & captions (along with my letter—the one you mentioned running) along with a postscript & forecast (by me) that would tie that last election to the one coming up. I’ve begun to feel very guilty about losing that one—mainly because so many people all over the country were apparently looking to Aspen for a breakthrough. It’s amazing to realize how many completely different kinds of people read that Aspen piece in the 10/1 issue. I’ve had letters from all over the fucking world. Anyway—we decided just tonight that [Ned] Vare will probably run for Mayor in the Spring & we’ll need at least $2500 to pull it off properly. (At the moment, on the strength of a $250 donation from [
RS
board member] Arthur Rock’s tall Houston girlfriend, Mary, we’re mounting an eleventh-hour legal maneuver to postpone the election until November) ... but we figure to lose this, so our real point is to mobilize the freaks
ahead
of the May election, so that when the postponement move fails we’ll have our act together & ready for the showdown. And it
will
be the showdown, the
final act
if we lose—or a fine reprieve for Freak Power if we can put Vare over.
    Also, I’d like to get something put together in the way of an Aspen article by then—even if it has to be just that letter.Personally,

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