Hunter S. Thompson’s political legacy

Kelowna, BC

John Nichols writes in Tha Nation about Hunter S. Thompson’s political legacy, the one that came from his stab at municipal politics in Colorado in the 1970s.

It’s a good piece that expands Thompson’s influence beyond the bat-filled skies of the Nevada desert and the dwindling expense accounts of Saigon towards a politics in which political outsiders seize control of the power structure by the radical act of voting.

Although Thompson never won the race for sheriff of Pitkin County, he set a standard and a way forward that was mimicked elsewhere in the United States resulting in many radical candidates in public office at the local level. In my experience there are many more non-traditional politicians at the local level in American politics than even in this great pluralistic democracy to the North. That is changing, notably in my own community of Bowen Island and in some of the surrounding municipalities o Gibson’s and Vancouver where Greens are getting elected, but in general, local politics seems to have the same flavour as the Chambers of Commerce. It’s rare to see local politicians elected who are willing to push out the status quo.

Nichols’ article ends with this aphorism of Thompson’s: “Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.”

Good advice. It never hurts to have a few crazy ideas in the mix!