Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail '72

Thompson portrays a recurring battle between individuals and institutions throughout Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72. As he describes in his flashbacks, he is still angry about his own inability to overcome the institutional powers of his hometown (Aspen, Colorado) when he ran for sheriff in 1970. This resentment leads him to sympathize with McGovern, who begins his campaign to become president of the US as a rank outsider. Among the Democratic elites, the Old Guard who have controlled the party for decades, Ed Muskie and Hubert Humphrey are the chosen candidates. Thompson considers both of these men unimaginative and hopeless, men who are cowed by the institutional powers who tolerate their presence. The institution, rather than the electorate, is behind their appearance on the ballot. Muskie is the early favorite but soon falters, leaving Humphrey as the presumptive nominee. Humphrey campaigns with the full power of the Democratic establishment behind him. McGovern, an insurgent candidate, frames his political identity in opposition to this institutionalized power. He is an outsider, a person free from the corrosive politics of Washington, someone who can bring about real change. George Wallace is much more right-wing than even Republicans but garners similar anti-institutional support in running for the Democratic nomination. Thompson observes that this anti-establishment approach is working. Eventually, McGovern secures enough delegates thanks to his fight against institutions.

After McGovern wins the California primary, however, he has no more institutions left to conquer. Already, in California his massive support eroded due to negative campaigning by the Old Guard, and he fears their influence in the general election. Even though he is an outsider, McGovern reaches out to the institutional powers to make peace. He moves into Ed Muskie’s office and, after parliamentary maneuvering, accepts the nomination, promising to make Thomas Eagleton (a representative of the Old Guard) his vice president. From this moment on, Thompson believes, McGovern’s campaign is doomed. With the nomination in hand, he is at the head of the same institution he rallied against. By offering to make peace, he has sucked the energy out of his campaign for change. When Eagleton’s issues are revealed, he reacts exactly like a person trying to preserve their institutional power and loses the support of many people, even if their perception of his actions differs from reality. McGovern is nominated in opposition to the institution of the Democratic Party. Once he wins the nomination, however, he loses his appeal as a fighter against the institution. He becomes the institution, even without its support. This, Thompson suggests, is why McGovern failed: He betrayed everything that he claimed to stand for.

Rather than framing Nixon as the head of the Republican institution, Thompson frames him as the product of a cultural institution. Nixon represents the seething, alienated, distrustful America, a kind of cultural majority of negativity, which, as the election rumbles on, becomes increasingly pronounced. McGovern betrays his anti-institutional roots, while voters flock to the sitting president and most powerful man in the world simply because he embodies their resentment and cynicism. Thompson portrays Nixon as a symptom of a broader institutional disease rather than the cause: He is a rot at the heart of American institutional power, but the institution has been rotting for a long time. McGovern’s campaign fails, as do Thompson’s attempts to illuminate the truth through his reporting. The rotten institutions win the fight.