Thompson’s Campaign for Sheriff ( reviewed here). The new documentary Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb, co-directed by Daniel Joseph Watkins and Ajax Phillips, tells the story of Thompson’s campaign and builds upon Watkins’ previous effort, the hugely impressive book Freak Power: Hunter S. Though he lost the battle, his campaign kick-started a political movement in Aspen that ultimately won the war, the reverberations of which still ripple throughout the community today.
In 1970 he ran for Sheriff of Pitken County, Colorado, on the Freak Power ticket in a surreal campaign that drew international attention. He refused to merely stand on the sidelines, sniping at the participants – Thompson got directly involved. It was a brave thing to do in the era of Nixon but then Thompson was no ordinary journalist. Thompson took no prisoners and skewered politicians on both sides. Indeed, many so-called journalists and pretenders to the throne could do well to go back and read Thompson’s coverage and learn about the difference between actual insightful and revealing writing and that of merely serving up sycophantic bulletin board puff pieces for their preferred candidate. His coverage for Rolling Stone was a revelation at the time and is as fresh and compelling today as ever. Thompson was responsible for one of the most incendiary and celebrated books on the circus that is American politics. As the author of Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72, Hunter S.
Thompson have to say about the current election and the sorry state of American politics?” Credit: David HiserĪs we close in on election day in the most contentious and insane presidential election in living memory, one question that keeps popping up across the media landscape is this – “What would Hunter S.
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