Q&A: Matt Taibbi on the 40th Anniversary of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, Hunter S. Thompson's influence, and Why Barack Obama Isn't a Great Shark
by Eric Sundermann
The Village Voice
June 27 2012

Matt Taibbi, like many journalists, grew up idolizing Hunter S. Thompson. But Taibbi, unlike many journalists, got Hunter S. Thompson's job...

What do you think he'd say about the current political climate?

This era has a lot in common with the early '60s. We had a very long period of relative stability, relative cultural conservatism, and it's kind of coming apart at the seams as people are seeing the hidden fractures and discrepancies and the way our economy has been set up, and all of this is coming out in Occupy. That, to me, is a little bit like the early '60s. And that was a time that Hunter really liked. He loved that whole era, and it really comes out in the other book, the Las Vegas book, that he really fell in love with that whole time period. And what Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was about was that whole era rolling back, and all the great hopes of that era coming to an end. Right now, we're at a beginning stage. I'm sure eventually it'll turn into disillusionment, but we're not there yet. I think he would enjoy this time period...

You wrote that Hunter reminded the American public that we are supposed to have high expectations for our leaders, maybe even impossibly high expectations. Do you think the American public, today, views their leaders in that way?

I think there is a lot of idealism. I think a lot of what Occupy is is disappointed idealism. A lot of the people who thought, in Hunter terms, that Obama was the "Great Shark" who was going to come and right all the wrongs. And then they realized that he was very much, for all his good qualities, a conventional Democratic party politician, and all the negatives that that comes with. I think people were extremely disappointed, and that's why they're all out on the streets right now. There's a tremendous cynicism embedded in mainstream American politics right now, where people who are in Washington and live on Capitol Hill really don't think they have any obligation to be truly honest. They think that everything is a compromise. They've lost touch with what people actually want. And they really do want somebody who is idealistic...

Does that fall more on Obama or the political climate?

Ah, well, it's probably both. But I just always think about things where people say, on the finance front, "Oh, he doesn't understand this material. He has to trust his advisors. So that's why he's doing this and that." On the other hand, he's a constitutional lawyer and, with the Guantanamo Bay stuff, the rendition policies, drone attacks, all those things, he knows the difference between what's legal and what's not legal, what's constitutional and what's not constitutional, and he never put up a fight about it and he expressly said he would when he was campaigning. It's not like, you know, he tried to fight the good fight and he couldn't overcome the bureaucracy in Washington. There just was never a fight. He never tried. That's got to be on him.

If he wins, do you think he'll be tougher?

People always say that, but I don't know. I'm not going to hold my breath for that. If he didn't do it his first term... I mean, I just don't see it as a manner of strategy. These are moral absolutes. It's not right to assassinate innocent people. It's not right to jail people without due process. And he just did it. Whether it's good strategy or not, whether he has political reason to do it or not, he did it.

 i just saw Gonzo the other night.  GREAT movie