Thursday, January 2, 2014

Hunter S. Thompson's Disapproval of the Republican Party

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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