Hunter S. Thompson killed himself seven years ago right after Bush’s inauguration

Friends of the late Hunter S. Thompson like to think he couldn’t stand living in a world with a Republican president when he committed suicide on Feb. 20, 2005, just a month after George W. Bush’s inauguration.

It was just seven years ago this coming week – on Feb. 20, 2005 – that famed writer Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide “Hemingway style” by putting a gun in his mouth and shooting. Thompson friend, the actor Johnny Depp, said Hunter was suffering from a range of health problems when he took his life. Depp’s long friendship with Thompson includes playing him in the recent film “The Rum Diary,” and in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” In the introduction to his book about Thompson -- titled “Gonzo” -- Depp writes: “He appears when he is needed. He arrives when absurdity peaks. I imagine he always will.” At the same time, a new book about Thompson work for Rolling Stone Magazine -- titled “Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: the Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson” is edited by Rolling Stone editor Jann S. Wenner and celebrates the one thing Thompson hated most about America, and that’s Republicans and the Republican Party.

In fact, one of the last Rolling Stone reports from Thompson – titled “His Last Bow” – focuses on the 2004 election when George W. Bush beat Thompson’s friend John Kerry for the presidency. “One month after Bush’s inauguration for a second term – Hunter would be dead,” writes Wenner.

Gonzo journalism needed in a time of Republicans

Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is credited as the creator of “Gonzo journalism,” a style of reporting where reporters like Thompson “involve themselves in the action” to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. In turn, Thompson’s books “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72,” make it very clear that the author had an inveterate hatred of his old nemesis “Tricky Dick,” who’s also known as former President Richard Nixon.

In turn, the iconic American writer Tom Wolfe said “Hunter was the only twentieth-century equivalent of Mark Twain,” which is high praise indeed.

Thus, it doesn’t come as any surprise to Thompson fans that he wrote one final piece for Rolling Stone on Nov. 11, 2004, titled “The Fun-Hogs in the Passing Lane,” that’s featured in the new book “Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: the Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson.”

For instance, Thompson’s report from Campaign 2004 includes his views on former President George W. Bush, who outraged the writer. “Did you see Bush on TV, trying to debate? Jesus, he talked like a donkey with no brains at all… I almost felt sorry for him, until I heard someone call him ‘Mister President,’ and then I felt ashamed.”

When Karl Rove ran the country

Thompson then writes that “Karl Rove, the president’s political wizard, felt even worse. There is angst in the heart of Texas today, and panic in the bowels of the White House. Rove has a nasty little problem, and its name is George Bush. His candidate is a weak-minded frat boy who cracks under pressure in front of sixty million voters.”

Thompson goes on to explain how “presidential politics is a vicious business, even for rich white men, and anybody who gets into it should be prepared to grapple with the meanest of the mean. The White House has never been seized by timid warriors. There are no rules, and the roadside is littered with wreckage. That is why they call it the passing lane. Just ask any candidate who ever ran against George Bush – Al Gore, Ann Richards, John McCain – all of them ambushed and vanquished by lies and dirty tricks. And all of them still whining about it.”

In turn, Thompson asserts “that is why George W. Bush became president of the United States, and Al Gore is not. Bush simply wanted it more, and he was willing to demolish anything that got in his way, including the U.S. Supreme Court. It is not by accident that the Bush White House controls all three branches of our federal government (back in 2004). They are powerful thugs who would far rather die than lose the election in November.”

“That’s what Republicans do,” he added in his many writings about the “control-minded” Republican Party.

GOP will fight like hell for the White House

Thompson also writes – in his final report for Rolling Stone before he took his life – that “the Republican establishment is haunted by painful memories of what happened to Old Man Bush in 1992. He peaked too early and he had no response to ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’”

In turn, Thompson said this has always been the case with Republicans who serve the rich and powerful; while letting the working man in America suffer with what Hunter dubbed as “fear and loathing.”

In fact, Thompson states that “every GOP administration since 1952 has let the military-industrial complex loot the Treasury and plunge the nation into debt on the excuse of a wartime economic emergency. Richard Nixon comes quickly to mind, along with Ronald Reagan and his ridiculous ‘trickle-down’ theory of U.S. economic policy. If the rich get richer, the theory goes, before long their pots will overflow and somehow ‘trickle down’ to the poor, who would rather eat scraps off the Bush family plates than eat nothing at all. Republicans have never approved of democracy, and they never will. It goes back to preindustrial America, when only white male property owners could vote.”

Republicans wage vicious presidential campaigns

Thompson continues with his final Rolling Stone report with a view that “the genetically vicious nature of presidential campaigns in America is too obvious to argue with, but some people call it fun, and I’m one of them.”

For instance, he writes that “Election Day – especially a presidential election – is always a wild and terrifying time for politics junkies, and I am one of those, too. We look forward to major Election Days like sex addicts look forward to orgies. We are slaves to it.”

Thompson then ends his political essay by recalling the presidential election of 1972, when he and millions of Americans were trying to end the Vietnam War.

“We were angry and righteous in those days, and there were millions of us. We kicked two chief executives out of the White House because they were stupid warmongers. We conquered Lyndon Johnson and we stomped on Richard Nixon – which wise people said was impossible, but so what? It was fun. We were warriors then, and our tribe was strong like a river.”

Then, there’s what would become Thompson’s final written words before taking his own life – some seven years ago on Feb. 20, 2005 – when he ended his Rolling Stone piece with the statement: “The river is still running. All we have to do is get out and vote, while it’s still legal, and we will wash those crooked warmongers (Republicans) out of the White House.”

In turn, fans of Thompson note how his line: “Buy the ticket, take the ride,” was a favorite slogan of Hunter’s because “it pretty much defined both his work and his life.”

Image source of Hunter S. Thompson prior to his suicide on Feb. 20, 2005 at the age of 67. Photo courtesy Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson

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