I read enough of this book to get the gist of the feeling of the campaign, and also Hunter S Thompson’s writing style. But as it is extremely dated I felt like that was enough.

Not that I don’t like dated things. I love dated things, in fact! They offer a great perspective, I can’t re-iterate this to people enough. If you want to put current events in perspective, read current events reporting from 20+ years ago. Makes you realize that the sense of urgency that something must change or the whole country/system will go up in smoke, sense of disappointment in the political establishment and corruption and our powerlessness about it, sense of disdain for everything that seems so absurd and wrong, all this has been going on for decades. Centuries, in fact. There is nothing new under the sun. It is sad to read about people feeling the same disillusionment with the Democratic party or with party politics in general that we are feeling now, 40 years later. That’s pretty sad. When will things be different? Will they ever be different? Have they ever been different? Probably not. I mean, the trial of Socrates is a good example of how people like to keep the status quo and normal order above all else, and i expect that to varying degrees this will continue indefinitely.

Also, it is obvious to me that everyone who writes for Slate and for Politico and probably every male journalist ever secretly wants to emulate HST in everything they do. That’s fine and everything, but that does make him part of the establishment now. Everyone becomes a part of the establishment eventually, one way or another.