Hunter S. Thompson
wrote “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved” to communicate his
disapproval of the Republican Party and the ethnocentrism of its supporters in
1970. Throughout Thompson’s
career as a journalist, he has reported on many politicians, none, however,
more than Richard Nixon. He
credited Nixon for getting him involved in politics, because he so strongly
disapproved of his actions while in office. He considered him an over-aggressive, merciless war
criminal, who was willing to threaten the safety of Americans to prove a lesson
to others (Crook 2). Thompson
believed that he was nothing but a negative influence on our country, and
anyone who followed him was either uneducated about current affairs or easily
persuaded by Nixon’s false promises.
Thompson
uses Jimbo’s character to criticize the Republican Party. He uses stereotypical characteristics
so the readers will identify Jimbo as a member of that party. For example, in his dialogue with
Thompson he informs him that he attends the Derby every year and is familiar
with the crowd. Jimbo makes the
statement, “... [T]his is no town to be giving people the impression you’re
some kind of faggot” (Thompson 1).
Thompson emphasizes this dialogue to imply that Republicans are
generally homophobic due to their conservative beliefs as well as fear of being
judged by other members of the party.
Another stereotypical characteristic that portrays Jimbo as a Republican
is that he splurges on expensive liquor.
In the text, he disapproves of Thompson’s beverage choice when he orders
a Margarita with ice by saying “Goddam, we gotta educate this boy. Get him some good whiskey…” (Thompson 1).
The irony of Jimbo calling Thompson uneducated, when he clearly has no
knowledge of anything going on in the US other than the Derby, demonstrates his
ethnocentrism and hypocrisy.
Jimbo’s lack of
knowledge about current events that do not pertain to the upper class suggests
that Thompson believes Republicans to be uneducated about the politicians they
support. His ignorance causes him
to be extremely gullible. Thompson
tells him a fabricated story, claming that the Black Panthers are planning an
attack, threatening the safety of everyone at the Derby. Jimbo responds by saying, “Those sons
of bitches! God Almighty! The Kentucky Derby!...Why here? Don’t they respect anything?”
(Thompson 1). Thompson intends the
fictional attack of the Black Panthers to juxtapose the invasion of American
troops into Cambodia. At that time
in American history, “…without consulting Congress, Nixon placed twenty
thousand American troops in Cambodia in an effort to covertly continue the war
in Vietnam” (Kittredge 92). He is
demonstrating that Republicans are solely concerned about their own security at
a time when their president is jeapordizing the safety of an entire country. He is also emphasizing the ignorance of
the members of the political party, because they elect and support a leader,
despite their lack of knowledge about his decisions and how they negatively affect
our country as well as others’.
Thompson
criticizes the Republican Party through Jimbo’s character to emphasize his
disapproval of President Nixon and his decisions as a leader. In the text, Thompson discusses how the
only current event everyone at the Derby is aware of is the fact that a woman
is permitted to race that year.
Although the Derby is taking place the same time as the bombings in
Cambodia and the shootings at Kent State University, individuals attending the
race are only concerned about news that affects them directly. Thompson uses this example to emphasize
that the only people who support Nixon are the individuals who are unaware of
his irrational and self-serving decisions. In a farewell letter to Nixon preceding his death, Thompson
expresses his uncensored and honest opinion of the late president.
Nixon was no more a Saint than he was
a Great President…He was a cheap crook and a merciless war criminal who bombed
more people to death in Laos and Cambodia than the U.S. Army lost in all of
World War II, and he denied it to the day of his death. When students at Kent State University,
in Ohio, protested the bombing, he connived to have them attacked and slain by
troops from the National Guard.
“Crook” 4
Thompson believed that Nixon bombed
Cambodia as a statement to the rest of the world; to establish a reputation as
a dominating military leader. His illogical
actions, however, caused the United States to be viewed as an aggressive bully,
threatening the safety of innocent civilians for our own selfish gain. He states that, “[i]t is Nixon himself
who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American
character that almost every country in the world has learned to fear and
despise” (Crook 6). Thompson
elaborates on this point in “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved” to
communicate that despite the negative impact Nixon’s decisions have on the US,
Republicans continue to support him due to their ignorance of the
circumstances. Thompson mentions
the media attention directed towards the situation in Cambodia twice in the
article, once when he reads the cover of a newspaper at the airport, and a
second time when he hears an urgent broadcast over the radio. He does this to show that the upper
class individuals attending the Derby have the resources to educate themselves
about Nixon’s aggressive and careless leadership tactic. However, they choose to ignore how he
is negatively affecting the country, because the damage he is doing does not
affect their lives directly. He
also strongly disapproves of Nixon’s decision to take military action against
American students at Kent State University, solely because they disagreed with his
decision to continue the Vietnam War.
He believed that Nixon had a Nazi spirit, considering he attempted to
destroy demonstrators who opposed his ideas, even if they were his own
citizens. Therefore, Thompson
criticizes white, upper-class Republicans for supporting Nixon, because they
cannot see past the façade that he creates by portraying an all-American image
to the public, despite his poor leadership and illogical aggressiveness.
By
critically judging individuals at the Kentucky Derby, Thompson realizes that he
is part of the problem, but fails to change his behavior. Throughout his experience at the Derby,
he and Ralph are on a tireless hunt for a face to sketch that captures the
horrific scene he is trying to portray in his article. In the article, Thompson describes the
image of the face he was attempting to find.
It was a face I’d seen a thousand
times at every Derby I’d ever been to.
I saw it, in my head, as the mask of the whiskey gentry-a pretentious
mix of booze, failed dreams and a terminal identity crisis; the inevitable
result of too much inbreeding in a closed and ignorant culture. “Thompson” 5
At the end of the text, Thompson
looks into the mirror to discover the face they have been looking for is his
own. His image embodies “a puffy,
drink-ravaged, disease-ridden caricature…like an awful cartoon version of an
old snapshot in some once-proud mother’s family photo album” (Thompson 9). This demonstrates that despite his
criticism and disapproval of the spectators at the Derby, Thompson allows
himself to participate in the same behavior, while making accusations about
everyone else. Although he
eventually recognizes his hypocrisy, he does not alter his behavior. He proceeds to ignore significant news
stories on the radio during his drive home. He yells over the broadcast at Ralph, “Bug off, you
worthless faggot...If I weren’t sick I’d kick your ass all the way to Bowling
Green—you scumsucking foreign geek.
Mace is too good for you...We can do without your kind in Kentucky”
(Thompson 9). He criticizes Nixon
for being over-aggressive when dealing with individuals from different
countries in a professional situation, however, Thompson makes a physically
violent threat towards Stedman when they are working together. He is also judgmental of Jimbo’s lack
of concern about anything other than the Kentucky Derby, but then proceeds to
ignore a news broadcast to shout profane statements involving his own personal
affairs. His hypocrisy is relevant
throughout the text and discredits his personal opinion and judgment of others.
Just
as people supported Nixon solely because of the public image he portrayed, many
citizens in today’s society elected Barack Obama in the 2008 election for the
same reason. Howard Stern, a
popular radio personality conducted an experiment where he interviewed Obama
advocates as they went to vote. He
asked several voters if they supported things like the Republican Party,
opposition to gay marriage and abortion, and a running mate named Sarah Palin. Because so many citizens were
uneducated about either candidate’s policies, and were solely voting for Obama
because of his race or public image, many agreed that they supported several or
all of the issues listed above.
This shows that despite the increased efforts by the media to attempt to
educate people about the election, some will always ignorantly support a
candidate for the wrong reasons, just as Nixon supporters did during his
presidency.
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